Japan, Phl leaders want RAA completed ASAP

Both Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. want the reciprocal access agreement completed as soon as possible.

In a media interview with the Philippine media delegation in Tokyo on Monday, Marcos said that the Southeast Asian country is exploring similar agreements with other nations aside from Japan.

Marcos added that he and Kishida had decided to allow military forces from Manila and Tokyo to occupy each other's territories legally.

"It's been in the works way before that. Of course, the incidents in the past few couple of months have certainly sharpened our focus when it comes to that, but again, that's one of the things that I'm looking forward to that will have… a very big multiplier effect on our capabilities," Marcos said.

"(We want to finish) all of this as soon as possible, yesterday, if not, sooner," Marcos added.

The President stressed that it "would be big" and "will have a big multiplier effect" to the country's capabilities.

During his bilateral meeting with Kishida last Sunday, Marcos said that the RAA would improve maritime cooperation between the two nations, facilitate procedures and define norms when Philippine forces visit Japan for training and joint exercises, and vice versa.

Marcos added that the Philippines and Japan will work to maintain calm in the West Philippine Sea through the RAA as China continues to raise tensions in the disputed waters.

"That is something that I believe is very, very significant and that it will bring to us greater capacity to maintain the peace in (the South China Sea)," Marcos said in his preliminary remarks during his talk with Kishida.

Phl-Japan deal similar to VFA with US

Meanwhile, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said the Philippines and Japan are anticipated to conduct a military drill like the country's Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States after the finalization of the proposed RAA.

"In Philippine analogy, (the RAA) is more of a Visiting Forces Agreement where our troops can go to Japan to do drills and trainings and the Japanese soldiers can come to the Philippines to do training like Balikatan exercises," Malaya said in a public briefing on Monday.

Malaya said the governments of Japan and the Philippines are eager to expedite the construction of RAA in order to strengthen military cooperation amid the growing security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region.

He added that the RAA will help improve the nation's national security and disaster response operations. It may serve as the legal foundation for the AFP and Japan Self Defence Force to conduct extensive military training exercises.

According to Malaya, the RAA will aid in the promotion of a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region as both Marcos and Kishida wanted to strengthen the coast guards' relationship to improve marine cooperation between Japan and the Philippines.