A Japan Coast Guard training vessel carrying officer candidates is planning port calls in Greece and Sri Lanka, two nations involved in China's "Belt and Road Initiative" to build a giant economic bloc.
The visits, in June and July, are seen as intended to indicate freedom of navigation in countries where Chinese firms have purchased the right to manage important ports, and to serve as a strategic check on China.
The visits are to be made by the Kojima, a training ship with a crew of about 50, including Japan Coast Guard Academy graduates.
The vessel is set to leave Japan on April 26 and visit six cities in five countries, as part of an annual circumnavigation of the globe the JCG carries out to help officer candidates gain technical skills. The ship is expected to return in August.
The Kojima is to visit Piraeus Port in Greece in June. The port is Greece's largest and has been called a symbol of the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe.
Management rights to Piraeus were purchased by a Chinese company in April 2016 when the Greek government was in fiscal trouble.
The visit will be the first by a JCG training vessel since 2009, and the first since the Chinese acquisition.
The ship will visit a port in Colombo in July.
A Chinese company owns the management rights to Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka. This will be the first visit to the country by a JCG training vessel.
The port calls are part of Japan's "free and open Indo-Pacific" strategy. There are concerns that access to ports purchased through the Belt and Road Initiative could be restricted, or that they could be used for military purposes.
Chinese President Xi Jinping secured the participation of Italy in the initiative during a visit to the country in March, the first among the Group of Seven advanced nations to join.
China plans to support the construction of a port in northern Italy. Backed by immense funding, the initiative's presence in Europe is growing.
By visiting ports in Greece and Sri Lanka, the Japanese government wants to demonstrate the JCG's freedom of navigation and "take the opportunity to stress the importance of open ports to these countries and the international community," according to a government source.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
