TOKYO: Japan has carried out its first submarine drill in the South China Sea, local media said on Monday, a move that could provoke Beijing which claims most of the disputed waters.

The anti-submarine drill was conducted on Thursday in the region to “improve strategic techniques”, Japan’s defence ministry said in a short statement.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defended the drill, which he said does not aim to target “a particular nation”.

Neither Abe nor a ministry spokesman said whether it was the first such exercise there.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said the submarine Kuroshio joined three Japanese warships in waters just southwest of the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal.

China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, despite competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Tensions have been high over the Scarborough Shoal since Beij­ing seized it from Manila in 2012.

The newspaper said the one-day submarine exercises were Tokyo’s first in the South China Sea.

The Maritime Self-Defence Force carried out a “practical” anti-submarine drill, including an exercise to spot enemy submarines with sonar devices, the Asahi said, quoting government sources.

The sources described it as a legitimate naval exercise in neutral waters, with rights of access under international law.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2018