A decade-strong cooperation for defense and security
Recently, it was reported that the two countries signed a defense agreement that allow their military forces to visit each other’s soil. The Philippines-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement is a significant milestone that marks this era in the partnership between the two countries enhancing defense cooperation and promoting regional security amidst Chinese aggression in disputed waters.
While negotiations for this agreement started only in November last year, the partnership between Japan and the Philippines in the area of national security is more than a decade strong and started building momentum in 2011.
That was when on an official working visit to Japan in September 2011, the late President Benigno S.C. Aquino III held a summit meeting with then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to exchange courtesies, reinforced the “strategic partnership,” and discussed cooperation in the field of maritime affairs.
One year later, the Philippines’ Department of National Defense and the Ministry of Defense in Japan signed the 2012 Statement of Intent on Defense Cooperation and Exchanges, which provides the institutional framework for defense exchanges and cooperation for both militaries.
This framework was responsible for allowing Japanese forces and medical workers to land in Visayas to help with relief efforts after the region was devastated by the Super-Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Aside from sending troops and paramedics, Tokyo also sent about $10 million in emergency aid.
During the height of the tensions in the West Philippine Sea in 2015, Japanese surveillance planes flew over the disputed waters as part of joint drills with Philippine Armed Forces, simulating maritime search and rescue operations as well as disaster response. Such drills have been conducted several other times since.
Shortly afterwards, a new defense agreement was signed in 2016 by then-Philippine Defense Military Voltaire Gazmin and Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhide Ishikawa that allows equipment and technology transfer for both countries, joint research and development, and even joint production of these defense materials.
In 2022, the First Japan-Philippines Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting, or “2+2”, was conducted in Tokyo. Attended by Hayashi Yoshimasa, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan; Kishi Nobuo, former Minister of Defense of Japan; Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr., former Secretary of Foreign Affairs; and Delfin. N. Lorenzana, former Secretary of National Defense, the meeting affirmed the two countries’ commitment to further strengthening the coordination in response to regional and international issues and began the talks that led to the recently agreed upon agreement.
The transformation of the Philippines-Japan relationship from conflict to cooperation highlights the power of reconciliation and mutual interests in forging robust alliances. With the Philippines-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement, the two countries reaffirm their commitment to working jointly towards a more stable and prosperous future in the Asia-Pacific region. — Jomarc Angelo M. Corpuz
