BEIJING (SCMP) - The Japanese and U.S. navies have held their first-ever joint anti-submarine drill in the South China Sea in the latest sign of their closer defense ties.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force said that two of its destroyers – JS Kaga and JS Murasame – and an Oyashio-class submarine had joined an American Aegis destroyer, the USS Milius, for Tuesday’s exercise, which also involved Japanese SH-60J helicopters and U.S. and Japanese patrol aircraft.
The three destroyers had taken part in another drill in the South China Sea last week, and the Japanese ships also made a port call in the Philippines over the weekend before joining the Philippine frigate BRP Jose Rizal for an exercise off Subic.
The drills come as Japan is stepping up the pressure on Beijing over its claims to large parts of the South China Sea.
At the start of the year it sent a note verbale to the United Nations, saying China’s drawing of territorial sea baselines in the South China Sea failed to satisfy conditions set out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Beijing’s claims are contested by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan, and have also stoked tensions with the United States, which regularly deploys warships and planes to the disputed waters.
China has repeatedly warned Tokyo against actions that will affect the two countries’ relationship and criticized it for being under U.S. influence.
China has also been working to deepen its own military cooperation with Russia in the face of pressure from the U.S. and its allies, and last month the two navies carried out their first joint maritime patrol around the Sea of Japan.
Collin Koh, a research fellow from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the U.S.-Japanese anti-submarine exercise would come as no surprise to Beijing, adding that the Japanese submarine Kuroshio had previously staged training exercises in the contested waters.
“So this joint anti-submarine drill in the South China Sea involving a Japanese maritime self-defense force sub would represent a step-up,” he said. “That may complicate China’s own anti-submarine efforts in the area, since it’s building up this capacity. But I don’t think it’ll be alarmed per se. In any case, there are a few issues to consider”.
He said the Chinese military has a “home ground advantage” because of its military build-up in the disputed waters, and it remains to be seen whether Japan will make regular submarine deployments in future.