As Tokyo considers transferring retired military equipment to the Philippines and Indonesia, it is not simply offloading aging hardware ¡ª it is planting the seeds of multidecade security partnerships.
The ongoing discussions with Southeast Asian partner countries point to a quiet but significant shift in Tokyo¡¯s defense diplomacy strategy. Rather than consigning aging Maritime Self-Defense Force ships and aircraft to the scrapyard, Japan is increasingly treating them as strategic assets capable of generating long-term political, economic and security returns.
The timing is significant.?
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