Japan and the Philippines will allow troops to deploy on each other’s soil for combat training and joint operations including disaster relief. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) increasingly assertive actions in the South and East China seas prompted the enhanced military cooperation.
The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), which both nations’ legislatures must ratify, paves the way for more bilateral and multilateral engagements, such as Japan’s full participation in Balikatan, a Philippines-United States military exercise held annually in the Philippines. Members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces previously attended as observers. The pact also calls for South China Sea patrols within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and other security measures.
The early July 2024 agreement is Japan’s first RAA with an Asian country and part of its effort to deepen ties with Australia, the Philippines and the U.S. The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations are strategically important because they abut key shipping routes.
“As the security environment in the region becomes increasingly severe, the signing of this important security-related agreement with the Philippines, a strategic partner located at a strategic juncture on the sea lanes and sharing fundamental values and principles with Japan, will further promote security and defense cooperation between the two countries and firmly support peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Japan’s Foreign Ministry stated after the Manila meeting.
Japan’s Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa joined the Philippines’ Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo at the July meeting, following an initial session in Tokyo in April 2022. Kamikawa and Teodoro signed the RAA at a ceremony witnessed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who, in a subsequent social media post, described Japan as “a partner in securing peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
Manalo thanked Japan for supporting the Philippines in its territorial disputes with the PRC. Beijing claims most of the South China sea, including an area within the Philippines EEZ that Filipinos call the West Philippine Sea. The Chinese coast guard for months has blocked, rammed and fired water cannons at Philippine resupply vessels bound for a military outpost on Second Thomas Shoal. Chinese personnel bearing knives, spears and an axe attacked Philippine resupply crews near the outpost in mid-June 2024, injuring personnel, slashing their inflatable boats and stealing rifles. Philippine leaders have demanded $1 million in compensation and the return of the firearms. Japanese and Philippine officials, in a joint statement after the July meeting, “expressed serious concern over the dangerous and escalatory actions by China.”
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, the PRC, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping territorial claims in parts of the South China Sea. Beijing and Tokyo both claim the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The Chinese Coast Guard has harassed military, fishing, scientific, and oil and gas survey vessels in waters controlled by most of its rival claimants.
Manalo also praised Tokyo for supporting a 2016 international tribunal’s ruling that Beijing violated Manila’s sovereign rights in its EEZ. The tribunal determined the Chinese government’s expansive claim had no legal basis, but Beijing has ignored the ruling and persisted with its illegal assertion. “Amidst the backdrop of the geopolitical situation in this and other regions, which has put the stability and predictability of the rules-based international order under stress, we discussed global and regional issues of common concern,” Manalo said of the Manila meeting.
Specifically, the agreement allows Tokyo’s surface-to-ship missile units to train with U.S. weapons such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System and midrange missile systems on the Philippines’ Luzon Island, Masashi Murano, a Japan expert at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute think tank, told The Japan Times newspaper. It also allows Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade and U.S. military personnel to train with small, ground-launched munitions and drones.
Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington in April 2024. The U.S. is solidifying its Indo-Pacific alliances to counter the PRC’s influence. Biden reiterated the U.S.’s ironclad commitment to stand by Japan and the Philippines.
Chester Cabalza, president of International Development and Security Cooperation, a Philippine think-tank, told Benar News the RAA was groundbreaking. “The significance of the military pact enlivens the agility and deterrence of Manila with the quantum leap support of a strategic and technologically advanced neighbor like Japan,” he said.
