Coast Guards to Conduct 1st Drill in Tokyo Bay; Japan, U.S., Philippines to Conduct Drills off Kagoshima

The Yomiuri Shimbun

2:00 JST, December 17, 2024

The coast guards of Japan, the United States, Australia and India are to conduct their first four-country drill at the Port of Yokohama in Tokyo Bay in January, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. In March, Japan, the United States, and the Philippines also plan to conduct joint drills off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture.

As China intensifies its hegemonic moves in both the East and South China seas and the Indo-Pacific, the coast guards of concerned countries will work together to maintain and strengthen maritime order based on the rule of law.

Under the framework known as the Quad, Japan, the United States, Australia and India have deepened cooperation on maritime security, which is its main theme. The four coast guards will start a joint mission to patrol the Indo-Pacific next year, where they will carry one another’s personnel on their vessels. Additionally, the Quad leaders will create an Indo-Pacific maritime training initiative with Southeast and South Asian countries and Pacific island nations in order to coordinate law enforcement capacity building assistance.

The first joint maritime drill is set to start from Jan. 8 and will be held in conjunction with the first visit of Indian Coast Guard Director General Paramesh Sivamani to Japan and the arrival of a large Indian patrol vessel to Yokohama.

The coast guards of Japan and India will conduct oil and hazardous substance control training together with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Australian Border Force, where they will confirm each other’s operational methods. Joint missions in the Indo-Pacific region are set to follow.

Meanwhile, the second joint drill by the coast guards of Japan, the United States and the Philippines will be held in the waters around Japan, following one in June in the waters north of the Philippines near the South China Sea. Patrol vessels from the three countries will gather in and around Kagoshima Bay in March and work on interoperability through search-and-rescue drills at sea. According to Philippine Coast Guard officials, their patrol vessel is scheduled to undergo maintenance in Japan in conjunction with its participation in the drill.

Chinese government vessels and warships repeatedly pass through the Osumi Strait off Kagoshima Prefecture.

As a result of China’s aggressive maritime actions, the Japan Coast Guard has in recent years been working to stabilize maritime order using multilayered cooperation based on “minilateralism,” an international relations concept that involves small groups of nations collaborating to tackle problems or pursue mutual goals. The first such joint maritime drill was conducted in June off the coast of Maizuru, Kyoto, between the Japanese, U.S. and South Korean coast guards.

In response, the China Coast Guard, which has been confronting Japan over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, conducted in naval exercises around Taiwan.

China and Russia have been showing off their unity by conducting joint patrols in the North Pacific and other areas in September and October and have also been deploying maritime patrol vessels to the Arctic Ocean for the first time.