JAPAN, U.S. DELIGHTED AS EUROPE BOOSTS PRESENCE IN ASIA-PACIFIC

Japan and the United States have welcomed planned naval deployments this year by major European countries to Indo-Pacific waters, as China's rapid military modernization and maritime and territorial ambitions prompt moves to increase deterrence, Ko Hirano reported for Kyodo News.

With Beijing demonstrating increasing assertiveness in the East and South China seas and on the India-China border, Britain will deploy the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth and its strike group to East Asia, France will dispatch a naval vessel to Japan and Germany will send a frigate to the Indian Ocean -- all planned for 2021, according to government announcements and news reports.

"Japan has potential for further development of defense cooperation with Europe," Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said in an online meeting with his German counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Dec. 15.

The development comes amid doubts in Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific about how much of a security threat Europe sees as coming from China as it apparently seeks to shift the status quo in the region in its favor through coercive measures.

However, such concern abated when Kramp-Karrenbauer said, "What happens in the Indo-Pacific affects Germany and Europe. We would like to cooperate in safeguarding the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific."

Kishi expressed hope the German warship will take part in exercises with the Self-Defense Forces and sail through the South China Sea, a strategically-important waterway largely claimed by China but disputed by smaller regional nations and non-claimant countries like the United States.

In a rare diplomatic foray by Germany, a country that has trod cautiously since World War II especially outside the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kramp-Karrenbauer said, "One must not impose a burden on others in pursuit of economic and security ambitions."

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