By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
JAPAN will continue to provide security and official development assistance (ODA) to boost Philippine maritime defenses, as the foreign ministers of both countries on Wednesday expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
Tokyo would build on its trilateral cooperation with the Philippines and the US to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a news briefing during his visit to Manila.
“Japan strongly opposes any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force or build up tensions in the region,” he said in Japanese. “We strongly ask for easing of tensions.”
“The issue over the South China Sea is a legitimate concern for the international community because it directly links to regional peace and stability,” he added.
This comes after a virtual trilateral summit between Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., outgoing US President Joseph R. Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru this week, in which they vowed to continue cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
In 2016, a United Nations-backed arbitration court based in the Hague said China’s claim to nearly the entire South China Sea was illegal.
China has largely ignored the ruling, calling it void. Aside from the Philippines and China, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the waterway.
“We stressed the importance of adhering to international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law on the Sea (UNCLOS),” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo told the same briefing.
“We will work together, leveraging our strengthened strategic partnership with other like-minded states including trilateral cooperation with the United States in preserving, upholding and defending the rules-based international order and in working for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added.
Mr. Iwaya was also set to meet with Mr. Marcos later on Wednesday.
The Philippine Senate in December concurred with the ratification of Manila’s reciprocal access agreement with Japan, which will ease the entry of equipment and troops for combat training and disaster response, smoothing military cooperation between Manila and Tokyo.
Japan’s National Diet has yet to approve the military pact, which both countries signed in July.
The agreement is the first of its kind to be signed by Japan in Asia and coincides with increased Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s expansive claims conflict with those of several Southeast Asian nations.
The ratification of the pact also followed Japan’s move to provide P611 million worth of security assistance to the Philippines including radar systems, inflatable boats and other maritime equipment.
The Philippines has a visiting forces agreement with the US and Australia. Tokyo, which hosts the biggest concentration of US forces abroad, has a similar deal with Australia and Britain, and is negotiating another with France.
“As neighbors, we face similar challenges in our common pursuit of regional peace and stability,” Mr. Manalo said. “Thus, we are working together to improve resilience and enhance adaptive capacity in the face of the evolving geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The Philippine National Security Council on Tuesday accused China of intimidating Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and normalizing its “illegal presence” after Beijing sent its biggest coast guard ship into the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile (370.4 kilometers) exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The government of Mr. Marcos has filed 199 diplomatic protests against China, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, including one over China’s deployment of its so-called monster ship near the coast of Zambales province.
Manila’s top diplomat also floated the idea to his Japanese counterpart of a general review of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), but did not elaborate.
Philippine Trade Undersecretary Allan B. Gepty told reporters in December Manila was pushing a review of the trade pact to include rules that would consider developments in digital trade and a more forward-looking economic deal focused on innovation and technological development.
The JPEPA is the Philippines’ first bilateral free trade agreement, which entered into force in December 2008.
Japan is the country’s third-largest export market and the third-largest source of imports. Total trade between the two reached $20.7 billion last year.
HARRIS CALL
Meanwhile, US Vice-President Kamala D. Harris on Tuesday spoke on the phone with Mr. Marcos to commit to maintaining strong bilateral ties, according to the presidential palace and the White House.
“Indeed, and I will tell you from my first visit to Manila and our first conversation, it is extremely important to me and to the United States that we reaffirm the commitment to the defense of the Philippines including the South China Sea,” the US Vice-President said, based on a statement from the presidential palace in Manila.
“I know there is bipartisan support within the United States Congress and within the US for the strength of this relationship and the enduring nature of it in terms of security, but again, prosperity and to your point of people-to-people ties,” Ms. Harris said.
Mr. Marcos told her Manila’s trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo would “change the dynamics of the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region.”
The Philippines and China have been embroiled in repeated spats in the past few years over disputed features within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, sparking regional concerns about a miscalculation and escalation at sea.
Under President Joseph R. Biden, Washington reiterated that the treaty covers any attacks on Philippine vessels, personnel and other assets in the South China Sea and anywhere in the Pacific.
In April last year, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty and Democrat Senator Tim Kaine pushed a bill that increased US military aid to the Philippines to $500 million from $40 million over five fiscal years through 2029.
The Philippines, one of the weakest in the world in terms of military capability, is important to Washington’s efforts to push back against China, which claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety.
In a separate statement, the White House said Mr. Marcos and Ms. Harris vowed to continue cooperation between their countries on climate and clean energy, maritime security and critical minerals and semiconductor supply chains.
“The Vice-President affirmed the importance of continued defense of international rules and norms in the South China Sea in the face of provocations from the People’s Republic of China and noted the US must stand with the Philippines,” it said.