MANILA - The defense chiefs of Japan and the Philippines agreed to boost bilateral military ties over mutual concerns driven by an “increasingly severe” security situation in their respective territorial disputes with China.
The two officials met amid a flurry of visits to Manila in recent days by foreign allies and new partners in broadened military cooperation with the Philippines. These included a visit by Adm. Samuel Paparo, the top U.S. military officer in the Pacific, and a port-of-call by the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its carrier group.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani arrived in Manila over the weekend, two months after the Philippine Senate ratified a new defense treaty with Tokyo, whose military forces had occupied the Philippines during World War II.
“[Philippine Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr.] and I firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe and that it is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in Indo-Pacific amid such a situation,” Nakatani said during a joint press conference with Teodoro in Manila on Monday.
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Both Manila and Tokyo should “deepen bilateral cooperation” with a sense of expediency, Nakatani said.
Teodoro said Nakatani’s two-day trip was meant to advance bilateral defense engagements after the Philippines ratified the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA). It allows for larger-scale joint military drills and paves the way for military personnel to take part in security operations, including coordinated security patrols.
The pact, however, still has to be ratified by the Japanese parliament before both nations “get to the ground running at full speed,” Teodoro said.
“This meeting was an exchange of views on regional security issues on the Indo-Pacific, the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea and most importantly on our shared initiatives moving forward, not only on bilateral security enhancements, but also in promoting a sustainable, economically beneficial and defense-sustained defense industry partnership,” Teodoro said.
Both Manila and Tokyo agreed to boost operational cooperation, start a strategic dialogue between “high-level operational action officers” and deepen information sharing, Nakatani said.
“We also agreed to commence discussion between defense authorities on military information protection mechanisms,” he also said.
Nakatani visited two key Philippine military sites in the north of Luzon, the main Philippine island, including Basa Air Base.
Basa is one of the nine Philippine military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between Manila and its long-time defense ally, Washington.
First signed in 2014, the EDCA allows the U.S. military to build and operate facilities inside Philippine bases for use by American and Filipino forces. While the United States is barred from establishing permanent bases here, analysts said the pact has allowed some flexibility in cooperation – including the hosting of the Typhon mid-range missile system – raising strong protests from China.
The EDCA supplemented the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, which provides legal cover for large-scale joint military drills in the Philippines between the two long-time allies.
Regional security concerns
The Japanese minister’s trip to Manila came after the unprecedented visit of France’s lone nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships last week after the French navy ships took part in combat drills with Filipino forces in the South China Sea.
The Charles De Gaulle, accompanied by three destroyers and an oil tanker, docked in Manila and in Subic Bay. In 2016, France and the Philippines signed a defense and security cooperation agreement, and have been building on it since.
Adm. Paparo, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific command based in Hawaii, meanwhile met with Philippine officials in Manila last week.
He was there to discuss regional security issues and underscore Washington’s commitment to the Philippine military “to enhance maritime domain awareness and capacity building in order to counter illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive activities,” according to a statement from his office on Sunday.
‘Very timely juncture’
“The visit by the Japanese defense minister is very important, coming at a very timely juncture, when the Philippines is engaged in outreach to like-minded partners,” said Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila.
“The timing in fact is very important, especially after a series of provocations by China within the West Philippine Sea,” he told BenarNews, using Manila’s name for South China Sea waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“This is not just symbolic, but an opportunity to deepen or broaden the already strengthening Philippine-Japan security partnership.”
Japan’s strategy is to signal its emergence as a “major power broker” in the region, security analyst Chester Cabalza told BenarNews.
“Tokyo has felt the intensity of Beijing’s impounding presence in its own coastlines, and one way of reducing the tension is to ally with nations experiencing similar strategic territorial dilemmas with China,” said Cabalza, who heads International Development and Security Cooperation, a think-tank in Manila.
Japan, unlike the Philippines, does not have territorial claims that overlap with China’s expansive ones in the South China Sea. But Tokyo has a separate dispute with Beijing over a group of uninhabited Senkaku Islands (also known as the Diaoyu Islands) in the East China Sea.
“Japan has to ink pacts with other middle powers in the region,” Cabalza said.
“By this way, China will be reprimanded to follow maritime rules-based order in the South China Sea.”
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news outlet.