Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to boost Japan’s naval capacity at Sagami Bay on Sunday, speaking on a warship before the beginning of the 2022 Malabar multilateral naval exercise.
“The enhancement (of Japan’s naval capacity) cannot wait, including the construction of new naval ships, bolstering our missile defence capacity and improvement of the work conditions and compensations for our (military) personnel,” he said.
Around 30 naval ships, including battleships, submarines and destroyers, are taking part in the exercise.
This year, twelve countries, including the United States, Canada, India, Australia, Pakistan and Japan, are participating in the drills.
Regarding Pyongyang’s missile tests, Kishida went on to say that Tokyo ‘cannot tolerate’ DPRK’s development of nuclear and missile capacity.
The international naval exercise is held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Navy, and in light of severe tension on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea launched dozens of ballistic missiles in the past few days.
