Japan, Philippines to boost ties due to mutual alarm over China aggression

Japan and the Philippines agreed on Monday to further deepen their defense collaboration and talk about protecting shared military information in the face of mutual alarm over China's increasing aggressive actions in the region.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, forged the agreements in a meeting in Manila where their concern over China's actions in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea was high in the agenda.

Japan and the Philippines are treaty allies of the United States, and the three have been among the most vocal critics of China's assertive actions in the region, including in the contested waters.

At the opening of his meeting with Nakatani, Teodoro said the Philippines was looking forward to boosting defence relations with Japan against unilateral attempts by China and other countries to change the international order and the narrative".

Nakatani said after the meeting that he agreed with Teodoro to strengthen operational cooperation, including joint and multinational defense trainings, port calls and information-sharing.

"We also agreed to commence discussion between defence authorities on military information protection mechanism, Nakatani said.

The Philippines signed an agreement with the United States, its longtime treaty ally, last year to better secure the exchange of highly confidential military intelligence and technology in key weapons to allow the sale of such weaponry by the US to the Philippines.

Then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Teodoro signed the legally binding General Security of Military Information Agreement in Manila at a time when the US and the Philippines were boosting their defense and military engagements, including large-scale joint combat drills, largely in response to China's increasingly aggressive actions in Asia.

Nakatani said that he and Teodoro 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 defence cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in Indo-Pacific".

Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships, meanwhile, have been involved in a series of increasingly hostile confrontations in the South China Sea in the last two years.

Also high in the agenda of Nakatani and Teodoro, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, was the expansion of bilateral cooperation, especially in the context of the Reciprocal Access Agreement".

Last year, Japan and the Philippines signed the agreement allowing the deployment of Japanese and Philippine forces for joint military and combat drills in each other's territory. The Philippine Senate has ratified the agreement, and its expected ratification by Japan's legislature would allow the agreement to take effect.

The agreement with the Philippines, which includes live-fire drills, is the first to be forged by Japan in Asia. Japan signed similar accords with Australia in 2022 and with Britain in 2023.

Japan has taken steps to boost its security and defensive firepower, including a counterstrike capability that breaks from the country's postwar principle of focusing only on self-defence. It's doubling defence spending in a five-year period to 2027 to bolster its military power.

Many of Japan's Asian neighbours, including the Philippines, came under Japanese aggression until its defeat in World War II, and Tokyo's efforts to strengthen its military role and spending could be a sensitive issue.

Japan and the Philippines, however, have steadily deepened defence and security ties largely due to concerns over Chinese aggression in the region.