The leaders of Japan and the Philippines agreed Thursday to sprucely boost their defense ties, allowing Japanese colours lesser access to Philippine homes, as pressures rise in Asia amid China’s growing influence. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is visiting Japan shortly after he and the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reached an agreement on allowing the United States more access to Philippine military bases to keep China’s territorial intentions in check. The defence arrangement signed by Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will allow Japanese colors to join training exercises to respond to natural disasters and philanthropic requirements in the Philippines.
The agreement is seen as a step toward broader military cooperation and could lead to analogous agreements between Japan and other Southeast Asian nations. The agreement is seen as a step towards broader military cooperation between Tokyo and Manila and could lead to analogous agreements between Japan and other nations in Southeast Asia where competition for geopolitical influence has increased amid a more assertive Chinese presence in the region. Kishida said the countries will continue addresses to further strengthen and streamline their common exercises and other operations, while seeking also to expand the transfer of Japanese defence equipment and technology to the Philippines as well as strengthening cooperation bilaterally with the United States.
“After our meeting, I can confidently say that our strategic cooperation is stronger than ever as we navigate together the rough waters buffeting our region,” Marcos said at a common news conference with Kishida. Taiwan, which lies between Japan and the Philippines, has become a focal point of enhancing Chinese military exertion that Tokyo and Washington worry could escalate into war as Beijing has promised to take back Taiwan, which it views simply as a guileful fiefdom and not an autonomous state. The leaders “expressed serious concerns about the situation in the East and China Swell and explosively opposed the conduct including force or compulsion that may increase pressures,” the statement said.
