The Philippines and Japan are to hold high-level defense and security talks next month, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday, as the two countries seek to boost ties in the face of China’s growing pressure on the region.
Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will meet with their counterparts, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, for the second time following the inaugural 2+2 meeting held in Japan in April 2022 where the two countries agreed to continue their coordination toward the realization of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” and the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.”
The talks follow the escalating confrontations at sea between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up its efforts to push its claim to nearly all of the South China Sea.
Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over Japan-controlled disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Japan, which occupied the Philippines in World War II, is negotiating a defense pact with Manila that would allow the countries to deploy troops in each other’s territory.
Tokyo is also helping to modernize the Philippine Coast Guard, a key entity in Manila’s effort to assert its sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.
Tokyo’s maritime self-defense force held joint naval and air drills with the United States, Australia and the Philippines in the strategic waterway in April.
The drills aimed to demonstrate what they said was their “collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The 2+2 framework with the Philippines is Japan’s ninth grouping but only the second in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.
The 2+2 Foreign and Defense Ministers Meeting was the highest consultative mechanism between the Philippines and Japan thus far.
It serves as a platform to further strengthen the decade-old strategic partnership between the two nations.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, bilateral defense and security issues affecting the region and an exchange of views on regional and international issues are on the agenda of the four officials.
Teodoro and Manalo will likewise hold separate bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts to tackle “areas of mutual concern” of the Philippines and Japan.
Japan pledge
Japan has once again pledged to provide the Philippines with the necessary defense equipment in the face of China’s never-ending aggressive actions.
Ex-Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, now a ruling party member of the Japanese parliament, said Friday that he met with Teodoro to discuss a deeper defense collaboration between the two countries, including the transfer of defense equipment such as radars, which would be “very effective” for the Philippines.
“Based on the change in the policy, we could also jointly develop defense equipment, as well as manufacture defense equipment with the other countries,” Onodora said in a press conference in Pasay City.
“The challenges in the West Philippines Sea that the country faces are legitimate concerns for the international community. In fact, in the regional peace and stability, we oppose any attempt to a unilateral change in the status quo by force or any action that will escalate tensions,” he said.
Japanese lawmaker Yoshiaki Wada, on the one hand, said that apart from the defense assents, Japan is also committed to providing “defense training and any assistance that the Philippines may need” to forfend the recurrence of the 17 June chaotic faceoff between Filipino troops and Chinese coast guardsmen at Ayungin Shoal that severely injured a Philippine Navy sailor.
“The pain and the agony that the Philippines is getting from China, especially in the West Philippines Sea, is what Japan has been receiving from China in sacred islands and other some western parts of Japan. In short, we are in the same boat,” Wada said.
Wada also condemned the recent provocation of China toward the Philippines’ resupply boats, calling it an “act of piracy.”
“Any severe instance occurring in the Indo-Pacific area will [cause] severe economic damage to Japan and the Philippines and other countries as well,” he said.
