Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced an updated version of her country's regional strategy in Vietnam last weekend, underlining Tokyo's growing reliance on Southeast Asia at a time of intensifying great-power rivalry.

Takaichi met her Vietnamese counterpart, Le Minh Hung, on Saturday in Hanoi, where the two leaders oversaw the signing of six cooperation agreements, including on disaster-resilient rural development, climate-resilient infrastructure and satellite data exchange.