The envoy, who has served here since November 2021, said he was personally looking forward to witnessing Malaysia take on the role.

“Japan has always respected Asean’s centrality and unity. Asean has to make decisions on a lot of things. At the same time, Asean’s prosperity and stability is a merit for Japan as well,” he said in an interview with FMT.

“We are not going to impose our own agenda. Rather, we will wait for Malaysia to come up with specific projects (for the Asean region) so that we can identify what we can do to help Malaysia have a successful chairmanship.”

Takahashi said Asean plays a crucial role in ensuring peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region

He said the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), a strategic framework which guides the region’s engagement with the broader Indo-Pacific area, has many similarities with Japan’s own Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) concept.

The ambassador  noted that both the AOIP and the FOIP are committed to the preservation of the rule of law, free trade, and safe navigation.

“There are a lot of common elements between the FOIP and AOIP. Therefore, we really want to collaborate with Asean countries to see how we can enhance free trade, safety of navigation and the rule of law (in Southeast Asia).

“I think nobody can say no to strengthening those values. Our approach is quite identical to Asean’s, so this is really where we want to collaborate with Malaysia,” he added.

Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines have faced increasing threats to their sovereignty in the South China Sea, with Chinese coast guard vessels repeatedly entering the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of these countries.

According to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, at least one Chinese coast guard vessel entered and operated in Malaysian waters every day between Jan 1 and Sept 27 this year.

Last month, three Chinese naval vessels reportedly encroached into the country’s EEZ off Sarawak and loitered near the Petronas’s Kasawari gas fields in the Sarawak basin, which holds an estimated 4.2 billion barrels of oil and 90.61 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Facing maritime security’s ‘major challenge’

Takahashi said Japan is looking to hold further talks and cooperation in the area of maritime security, which he described as Malaysia’s “major challenge” as a maritime nation.

The ambassador said these challenges, which include territorial disputes, are multi-faceted and vary from one country to another. Critically, every nation must have sufficient defence capacity to protect its sovereignty, he said.

Takahashi said this was why Malaysia is one of the first nations Japan has offered Official Security Assistance (OSA) to. Malaysia is set to receive maritime surveillance equipment from Japan under the arrangement.

“Malaysia is a maritime nation and faces a variety of challenges. Illegal fishing is one thing, illegal immigrants is another, and this is not only in the South China Sea but also along the Malacca Strait and other parts of Malaysia.

“We provide assistance, and this is not a one-off, it will continue. Identifying the challenges Malaysia has and trying to help them the Japanese way is what we have just started under this OSA.

“We really want to put more emphasis on maritime security because this is a major challenge that Malaysia faces,” he said, adding that the Malaysian armed forces will soon be given more equipment to bolster its maritime capacity.

The enhanced cooperation follows the elevation of Japan-Malaysia ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership (CSP) in December last year, which Takahashi said was designed to promote peace and security globally while enhancing bilateral ties.

“At the same time, it’s worth mentioning that bilateral naval exercises between Japan’s maritime self-defence force and the Malaysian navy have been held twice this year, which has never been done before.”

But the CSP is not just about security partnerships. Takahashi said Japan plans to enhance its people-to-people exchange and cultural relations with Malaysia.

One initiative is its Nihongo Partners programme, which will see Japanese volunteers sent to secondary schools in Malaysia to support local teachers teaching the Japanese language to Malaysian students.

“We agreed to expand these types of activities, so this is also an important part of this cooperation.”