The Philippines and Japan pledged to enhance their defense alliance through training exercises, logistical activities, equipment transfers and intelligence sharing on Monday amid China’s assertive moves in the South China Sea.
Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani held a defense ministerial meeting earlier this week in Manila to discuss additional avenues in security and military cooperation.
Ties between the two nations have strengthened in the face of China’s use of water cannons, ramming maneuvers and other coercive measures against Philippine forces within Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.. Beijing claims these waters and maritime features under its Ten Dash Line map.
“We share the common cause of resisting any unilateral attempt to reshape the global order,” Teodoro said in a press conference following the ministerial meeting. “In this endeavor, we will resist. It is important that this partnership is proof of that common desire to have a free and open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”
While China was not explicitly named, the talks involved “the situation in the East and South China Seas” according to Teodoro. Nakatani added that both parties “concurred that the security environment around us is becoming increasingly severe.” Chinese air and naval forces have circled Japanese airspace and waters in recent years, particularly around the Ryukyu Islands, a Japanese archipelago that includes Okinawa. Alongside diplomatic protests against the Chinese warships’ movements, Tokyo has bolstered its forces and infrastructure on the island chain.
“It is necessary for the two countries, as strategic partners, to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration,” said Nakatani.
Japanese official development assistance loans provided Manila with a fleet of 12 Coast Guard patrol ships for “maritime safety capability improvement” in the 2010s, according to a Japanese government news release. Last year, Tokyo pledged another five patrol ships for the Philippine Coast Guard in a $507 million loan. Japanese-built cutters are constantly seen on the frontlines in Manila’s spats with Chinese forces.
The agency’s patrol ships have sortied to escort resupply missions and maintain presence in the disputed waters despite the considerable tonnage difference to their larger Chinese counterparts. Most of the ships in the fleet have sustained damage from Chinese rammings and water cannon blasts.
Beyond maritime security, Teodoro and Nakatani highlighted Japan’s growing efforts in modernizing the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Tokyo has prioritized Manila in its new Official Security Assistance initiative, a program that provides recipients with defense equipment. So far, the Philippines is set to receive roughly $14.6 million in equipment that includes small boats, maritime domain awareness sensors and upgrades to previously sold air defense system radars through two tranches from 2023 and 2024.
Before the talks in Manila, the Japanese defense minister visited Wallace Air Station, a Philippine Air Force base located in Western Luzon that operates the first of four Mitsubishi air defense radars ordered by Manila in 2020. The radar station covers a large swath of the South China Sea, including the air space over Scarborough Shoal, a disputed maritime feature that has seen numerous aerial incidents between Chinese military aviation and Philippine maritime patrol missions within the last year.
Nakatani noted that he was “encouraged” by the Philippines’ use of the Japanese radar, claiming that it provided “an extremely large contribution to the air defense of the Philippines.”
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers JS Hamagiri (DD-155) and JS Ariake (DD-109) pulled into the Port of Manila for goodwill activities and discussions on Navy-to-Navy cooperation with their Philippine counterparts on Sunday.
Japanese naval officers also visited Manila earlier in the month to discuss the logistics for repairing Japanese warships in the Philippines. The delegation surveyed an unspecified amount of shipyards to judge their “temporary repair capabilities of JMSDF ships,” according to a Philippine Navy release.
