MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is the first recipient of Japan’s newly launched Official Security Assistance (OSA).
During a working lunch with Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo on Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said that Japan would provide a coastal surveillance radar system to the Philippines under the OSA, strengthen bilateral coast guard coordination and provide additional patrol vessels through Japan’s official development assistance.
Kamikawa and Manalo also committed to enhance the two countries’ supply chain resilience and cooperation in human resource development for the semiconductor sector.
The two countries are also strengthening cooperation in cybersecurity.
Kamikawa noted that Japan and the Philippines have made concrete progress in a wide range of areas of cooperation in the past several years.
Defense Minister Kihara Minoru credited President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the great strides in defense cooperation and exchanges the two nations have taken.
“The signature of the Reciprocal Access Agreement today represents the cooperative relationship that our two nations enjoy. And I welcome this new development, which reinforces the effectiveness of our defense cooperation,” Kihara told Marcos.
“I am committed to working with my good colleague, Secretary Teodoro, to further enhance our defense cooperation and exchanges in order to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kihara said.
“The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations are situated in a very strategically important region, placed in a key junction of Japan’s sea-lanes. Advancing defense cooperation and exchanges with the Philippines is important for Japan,” Kihara said.
In his remarks after the signing of the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Philippines now looks forward to “putting into flesh, so to speak, the steps forward, now that we have upgraded our partnership one level higher by the signing of the RAA.”
“This is another milestone in our shared endeavor to ensure a rules-based international order to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and particularly in our region,” he said.
While Philippines-Japan relations are very strong in traditional fields such as the economy and trade, “we add another dimension to our already strong bilateral relations by adding the vital aspect of security, which creates a holistic dimension or adds a holistic dimension to our bilateral relations.”
“It will also add to the multilateral efforts that both our governments are doing to make sure that our region respects the rule of international law,” he pointed out.
After meeting Marcos, Kamikawa and Kihara took part in the 2nd Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting (2+2) with Teodoro and Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo in Taguig City.
The ministerial security dialogue is the highest consultative mechanism for further deepening security and defense policy coordination and security cooperation between the two countries.
The signing of the RAA between Japan and the Philippines came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Marcos agreed in November last year to start negotiations on the pact.
Marcos had said the RAA between the Manila and Tokyo would be different from the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US.
Signed in 1998, the VFA exempts US troops from passport and visa regulations so they can participate in joint military drills in the Philippines. It’s not yet clear if Japanese soldiers would be entitled to the same privilege under the RAA.
The Philippines also has a defense pact with Australia called the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement or SOVFA, which was ratified by the Senate on July 24, 2012.
After the signing of the RAA, Kamikawa met with her counterpart Manalo. — Cecille Suerte Felipe, Pia Lee-Brago, Sheila Crisostomo, Mark Ernest Villeza