MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. and Japan Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Monday, February 24, said the two Asian countries’ bilateral relationship would remain “robust, enduring, and strong” even as “China and other countries” try to “change the international order.”
Nakatani said it was important for the Philippines and Japan to “further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration” because of the “security environment surrounding us… becoming increasingly severe.”
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Nakatani has served as defense chief of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, the late Abe Shinzo, and of current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Alongside the “increasing severity” of the security environment in the Indo-Pacific has come the depeening of Philippine-Japan bilateral ties, particularly when it comes to security and defense.
Nakatani on Sunday, February 23, visited both Basa Air Base and Wallace Air Station in northern Luzon. Wallace Air Station is where one of the two Japan-made air surveillance radar systems of the Philippine Air Force is based.
Manila has received from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation one fixed and one mobile system, with two more fixed systems still due to be delivered.
In April 2024, former US president Joe Biden convened the first-ever US-Japan-Philippines trilateral leaders’ summit in the White House.
In July 2024, the Philippines and Japan signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement, which would make joint military training easier for both sides. The deal has been ratified by the Philippine Senate and is expected to be ratified by the Japanese Diet by mid-2025.
Nakatani’s visit comes just six weeks after Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited Manila to meet his Filipino counterpart.
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During a press conference, Nakatani said the two Asian countries agreed to:
- “establish a strategic dialogue between high-level operational action officers and advance specific discussion toward deeper information sharing and advanced operational collaboration”
- “promote multi-layered people-to-people exchanges such as high-level exchanges and acceptance of international students on National Defense Academy” and
- “new high-level dialogue between the defense equipment authorities as well as the dispatch of Japanese public and private mission to the Philippines from the perspective of further advancing cooperation in mutually beneficial manner”.
Nakatani, like Iwaya, also emphasized the importance of the US-Japan-Philippines trilateral relationships, as well as the defense dialogue between the US, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. – Rappler.com