Japan, India’s QUAD partner, has been expanding its maritime engagement with Southeast Asia. It has augmented the capacity of the Philippine Coast Guard by supplying it with its second multi-role response vessel (MRRV). Parallelly, it has upgraded its defence ties with Vietnam by signing the ‘Japan-Vietnam Defense Cooperation at the New Level’. Further, this year’s edition of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force exercise, known as ANNUALEX, included Germany, the latest player in the Indo-Pacific and was conducted in the Philippine Sea, off the southern coast of Japan.
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