Japan Warns of Worsening Southeast Asia Security Risks, Backs ASEAN
“Disasters are growing more severe, striking communications, medical care, and transport at once. Conflicts worldwide are reaching our supply chains and energy supplies, and the military balance is shifting fast, raising the risk of collision against a vulnerable and of dangerous miscalculations,” Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told a joint gathering of ASEAN defense chiefs in Cebu City, the Philippines, which currently chairs the regional bloc.
“These crises do not merely adapt; they overlap and amplify one another,” Koizumi said, highlighting the importance of ASEAN’s “unity, centrality, and resilience.”
“Japan values all three” as they “are international public goods, safeguarding peace, prosperity, and every nation's freedom to choose,” he added.
Koizumi noted that ASEAN members “are strengthening their own ability to respond and deter.”
“ASEAN as a whole is tackling shared challenges from disaster response to maritime security. These efforts complement each other, and Japan … will support both,” he said.
“Our aim is simple: to widen the options for ASEAN and for each member to understand, decide, and act on its own,” the Japanese defense minister said, calling on Japan and ASEAN to “update our areas of cooperation.”
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