Patrol vessel Echigo of the Japan Coast Guard (Photo: VNA)
Tokyo (VNA) – Patrol vessel Echigo of the Japan CoastGuard (JCG) will be sent to Vietnam and the Philippines to take part in jointanti-piracy drills.
The JCG announced on May 22 that the drills arepart of Japan’s counter-piracy cooperation programme in Southeast Asia.Accordingly, Japan will support regional countries, including Vietnam, tostrengthen their coast guard forces’ law enforcement capacity.
Echigo is set to leave Niigata port of Japan onMay 24 and arrive at Da Nang port in the central region of Vietnam on June 13.
Suzuki Shiro, Head of the JCG’s InternationalCriminal Investigation Division, said this is the first time the JCG sends apatrol ship to Vietnam since it inked a memorandum of understanding with theVietnam Coast Guard (VCG) in September 2015. This is also the first time apatrol ship that Japan presented to Vietnam in 2015 participates in theanti-piracy drill in Da Nang.
The VCG has worked with the JCG to carry out anumber of cooperation activities to improve marine security protectioncapacity, Shiro told Vietnam News Agency reporters.
Shiro elaborated that VCG members came to Japanto participate in a training programme to promote their law enforcementcapacity. The two sides have conducted three joint training drills and theupcoming exercise will be the fourth. He voiced his belief that thiscooperation process will be stepped up in the time ahead.
The officer also affirmed Japan’s viewpoint thatmaintaining open, safe and free seas on the basis of legal regulations isimportant to ensuring peace and prosperity in the region. Notably, the seas inSoutheast Asia are assessed as important shipping routes in the world, andJapan is one of the countries having cargo transport activities through thisregion.
Although no pirate attack on Japanese ships inthe Southeast Asian seas has been reported, attacks on ships with Japanese citizensonboard happened. The number of pirate attacks in the seas near the Philippineshas also increased over the past years. Therefore, the JCG has sent patrolvessels to the Southeast Asian seas since 2000 to help the regional countries strengthenmarine security, he added.-VNA
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Patrol vessel Echigo of the Japan Coast Guard (Photo: VNA) 
