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- Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi addresses joint meeting of ASEAN defense chiefs in Cebu City, the Philippines, current chair of 11-member bloc
By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ISTANBUL (AA) – Japan on Wednesday flagged “three reasons” for the “rapidly deteriorating” security environment in Southeast Asia, pledging support to the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (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,” Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan’s defense minister, told a joint meeting of ASEAN defense chiefs in Cebu City, the Philippines, current chair of the Southeast Asian bloc.
“These crises do not merely adapt; they overlap and amplify one another,” said Koizumi, stressing 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 said.
Koizumi said the 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,” said the Japanese defense chief, urging ASEAN and Japan to “update our areas of cooperation.”
He pledged that Japan “will do everything it can” to turn ASEAN “choices into real strength.”
The meetings in Cebu City mark the 20th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting and 13th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus, which also brings together the defense chiefs of US, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and India, although China this year did not send its defense minister.
Riyaz Khaliq Khaliq
