Shangri-La dialogue: Japan PM Abe to urge security role

Japan will push for a greater role in Asian security at a regional summit on Friday, in a move set to anger China. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to promote Japan as a counterbalance to China at the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. The summit involves the US and Asian countries, and comes amid territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Japan-China ties are also strained over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Abe will give the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, which is also known as the Asia Security Summit, on Friday evening. He is expected to set out a vision of Japan and its ally, the US, playing a greater role in security co-operation in Asia. Regional defence officials and US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel will be at the event. Ahead of the meeting, Mr Hagel said he would raise issues ‘where we think China is overplaying its hand and presenting new challenges and new tensions to this area’, according to BBC.