TOKYO: Japan on Saturday pledged $6.1 billion in financial aid to the “Mekong Five” countries as it pushes infrastructure exports and courts influence in a region where rival China has an increasing presence.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled the pledge at a summit with his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam — fast-growing economies through which the lower section of the Mekong river flows.
“Japan will implement support worth around 750 billion yen ($6.1 billion) in official development assistance for the next three years,” Abe told a news conference following the seventh annual Japan-Mekong summit.
“The Mekong region, which has vast demand for infrastructure, is one of our most important areas,” Abe said.
“Japan will contribute to infrastructure development of the region in both quality and quantity,” he added. “The Mekong region and Japan are partners that will develop together.”
It was not immediately clear if the pledge included previously-earmarked Japanese financial assistance, or whether it was made up entirely of newly-allocated funds.
“The Mekong region is the most dynamic economic center, but there still is room for huge growth,” Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha told the news conference.
The meeting came as the leading Nikkei business daily said Friday that three Japanese companies had secured an order worth over 32 billion baht ($947 million) to equip a railway linking the Thai capital Bangkok with nearby suburbs.
The Japanese government plans to offer loans to cover part of the cost, the newspaper said, a common sweetener that helps clients afford these kind of big-ticket projects.
In a separate deal, Japan, Thailand and Myanmar signed an accord for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Dawei, southeastern Myanmar, local media said.
When completed, the zone on the Andaman Sea coast will have a total area of 200 square kilometers (80 square miles), making it one of the largest SEZs in Southeast Asia and a gateway for the Mekong region’s trade with India, the Middle East and Africa, Kyodo News said.
Abe has upped efforts to sell highways, train systems and power plants around the world, a key element in his bid to bolster the economy and Japan’s standing abroad.
Beijing’s growing financial muscle, as well as its increasing willingness to throw its diplomatic weight around, have added urgency to Japan’s efforts to step up engagement in the battle for regional sway.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in November at a summit in Myanmar that Beijing’s strategic partnership with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping was entering a “diamond decade leading to broader and deeper cooperation.”
Then in March, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China hoped to boost trade with ASEAN countries to $500 billion this year and $1 trillion in 2020.
Beijing’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has also upped the stakes, rivalling the Tokyo-backed Asian Development Bank and offering the kind of financial firepower rapidly-developing countries are keen to tap.
In a bid to counter the Chinese move, Abe in May announced a $110 billion investment plan for infrastructure projects in Asia, including in the “Mekong Five” states.
Japan is keen to be seen as the benevolent giant in the region and has worked hard to burnish a reputation as the nation bold enough to push back against China in territorial and other disputes.
Tokyo has its own spat with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea, but is increasingly vocal over China’s ambitions to control almost the whole of the South China Sea.
Vietnam is one of a number of countries that have territorial disputes with Beijing over this busy shipping area.
Siding with Tokyo and Hanoi, the participants jointly expressed “concerns” over the territorial disputes involving Beijing, saying in a statement that they “will further complicate the situation and erode trust and confidence and may undermine regional peace, security and stability.”
But the meeting avoided touching upon other sensitive issues for the region, including a growing migrant crisis.
Some 100 protesters from Myanmar and Japan staged a rally in light rain over Myanmar President Thein Sein’s presence at the summit, demanding that Yangon release all political prisoners.
Japan pledges $6.1bn aid to ‘Mekong Five’
Japan pledges $6.1bn aid to ‘Mekong Five’
Rubio says technical talks with Denmark, Greenland officials over Arctic security have begun
- US Secretary of State on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland
WASHINGTON: Technical talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland over hatching an Arctic security deal are now underway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland agreed to create a working group aimed at addressing differences with the US during a Washington meeting earlier this month with Vice President JD Vance and Rubio.
The group was created after President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, in the name of countering threats from Russia and China — calls that Greenland, Denmark and European allies forcefully rejected.
“It begins today and it will be a regular process,” Rubio said of the working group, as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We’re going to try to do it in a way that isn’t like a media circus every time these conversations happen, because we think that creates more flexibility on both sides to arrive at a positive outcome.”
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday’s talks focused on “how we can address US concerns about security in the Arctic while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom.” Red lines refers to the sovereignty of Greenland.
Trump’s renewed threats in recent weeks to annex Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally, has roiled US-European relations.
Trump this month announced he would slap new tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries that opposed his takeover calls, only to abruptly drop his threats after a “framework” for a deal over access to the mineral-rich island was reached, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s help. Few details of the agreement have emerged.
After stiff pushback from European allies to his Greenland rhetoric, Trump also announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that he would take off the table the possibility of using American military force to acquire Greenland.
The president backed off his tariff threats and softened his language after Wall Street suffered its biggest losses in months over concerns that Trump’s Greenland ambitions could spur a trade war and fundamentally rupture NATO, a 32-member transatlantic military alliance that’s been a linchpin of post-World War II security.
Rubio on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland.
“We’ve got a little bit of work to do, but I think we’re going to wind up in a good place, and I think you’ll hear the same from our colleagues in Europe very shortly,” Rubio said.
Rubio during Wednesday’s hearing also had a pointed exchange with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, about Trump repeatedly referring to Greenland as Iceland while at Davos.
“Yeah, he meant to say Greenland, but I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles,” Rubio said in responding to Kaine’s questions about Trump’s flub — taking a veiled dig at former President Joe Biden. “We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one.”
