The Philippines and Japan are intensifying efforts to enhance domain awareness to better identify and respond to potential regional threats, Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. said Sunday.

In an ambush interview in La Union, Teodoro said he would meet with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani to discuss ongoing defense cooperation between the two nations.

“Tomorrow, we will talk in-depth about enhancing bilateral, trilateral, and squad cooperation, not only between Minister Nakatani and myself, but also between him and the President,” Teodoro told reporters.

Teodoro and Nakatani, along with other defense and military officials from both countries, visited key military facilities at Basa Air Base and Wallace Air Base in Luzon.

“Well, basically, of course, what was visited was Basa Air Base for looking at our Fusion Center. And here, you know that maritime awareness is also a Japanese initiative, so capabilities were demonstrated and site facilities were demonstrated too,” Teodoro said.

The defense chief emphasized the importance of these military facilities.

“Domain awareness is extremely important so that we have a picture of what is happening in the airspace, principally on the airspace, within our Philippine Air Defense Identification Zone. Because if we are not aware, then we will not know what threats exist. So we are making our capabilities stronger and more precise,” Teodoro said.

Domain awareness refers to the country’s ability to detect, track, and understand activities or threats in a specific operational area.

Teodoro also highlighted the Philippines' priority to strengthen bilateral, trilateral, and squad cooperation, alongside the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Japan.

“This is independent of the RAA. The RAA will mean interoperability already, but this is a domain awareness initiative, coupled also with, on the part of the Philippine Navy, the Official Security Assistance that Japan provided,” he said.

“So we also took this opportunity to see how far we have progressed also on the deliverables of the different Air Force and other armed forces units, insofar as I'm concerned,” he added.

Teodoro said Monday’s meeting would cover regional security, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and defense industries, among other topics.

“We are working on shared goals and the cooperation is substantial and even going to be perhaps enhanced by their ratification of their RAA,” he added.

Once ratified by the legislatures of both countries, the RAA will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to engage in closer coordination, collaboration, and training with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.