Japan Should Start Giving Security Aid To Pakistan

2025-02-11 05:02:59

(MENAFN- Asia Times) The Philippines will once again receive Japan's Official Security Assistance , marking the third consecutive year of such support. In 2024, Tokyo pledged coastal radar systems and patrol boats to the Philippines and speed boats to Indonesia under the government-to-government scheme.

Yet as Tokyo's Indo-Pacific ambitions grow, a critical question emerges: Can OSA expand beyond Southeast Asia's maritime states without getting caught too deeply in the crossfire of US-China rivalry?

The answer arguably lies in Pakistan, a Chinese ally that paradoxically offers Japan the best chance to rebrand OSA not so much as a tool to encircle Beijing, but as a pragmatic regional security initiative.

Introduced in then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's National Security Strategy 2022, OSA marks Japan's shift from post-war pacifism to forging strategic security partnerships.

Unlike its socioeconomic development-focused Official Development Assistance (ODA), OS provides equipment and supplies as well as infrastructure development assistance to armed forces and related organizations of“like-minded” states to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.

With a modest expected budget of 8 billion yen (US$55 million) in 2025, OSA cannot significantly challenge or counter China's military might but does strengthen Japan's strategic ties. Rather, it helps Tokyo expand defense support without provoking Beijing, signals clear military intent and lays the groundwork for future defense sales.

Polarized reaction to Japan's OSA in ASEAN reveals its limits. While some countries-such as the Philippines, now hotly engaged in maritime disputes with Beijing-have hailed OSA as a deterrent, others, like Vietnam, remain cautious, opting to hedge rather than risk antagonizing China.

Beijing has seized on this divide, framing Japan's OSA as a US-aligned“containment” scheme. Chinese experts maintain that Japan is intentionally provoking conflict by using Southeast Asian proxies with tacit US approval.

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