Japan will provide patrol boats to Bangladesh, making Dhaka the second beneficiary of defense equipment under Tokyo’s new military aid program, as it aims to bolster the South Asian country's maritime security capabilities amid Chinese naval forays into the Indian Ocean.
The move is part of a deal the two countries signed Wednesday in Dhaka that will see the vessels being provided via a grant worth ¥575 million ($3.82 million) under the official security assistance program launched in April.
That’s close to the ¥600 million that the first OSA recipient, the Philippines, is being granted for the acquisition of Japanese coastal surveillance radars as part of an agreement signed earlier this month.