THE leaders of the Philippines and Japan agreed Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, to start negotiations for a key defense pact that would allow their troops to enter each other’s territory for joint military exercises. The move is part of efforts to strengthen their alliance in the face of China’s alarming assertiveness in the region.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is on a two-day visit to Manila, also announced after holding talks with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that a coastal surveillance radar would be given to the Philippines through a grant. The country is the first beneficiary of a newly launched Japanese security assistance program for allied militaries in the region.
Additional Japanese patrol vessels, defense equipment and radars would be provided to strengthen the Philippines’ law enforcement capability at sea, Kishida said.
Japan has supplied a dozen patrol ships in recent years to the Philippines, which is now largely using them to defend its territorial interest in the disputed South China Sea.
Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.
There has been a series of tense confrontations, meanwhile, between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships in the disputed South China Sea.