Latest news with #Japan-Philippines
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Philippines Agree to Strengthen Security Cooperation; Nations Hope to Work Together to Counter Expanding Chinese Maritime Presence
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The Foreign Ministry in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo With China's aggressive expansion of its maritime presence in the East and South China Seas in mind, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo agreed to strengthen security cooperation between their two countries when they met in Tokyo on Wednesday. At the start of the discussions, Iwaya declared that Japan hopes to collaborate with the Philippines, its 'near-alliance' partner, to realize a 'free and open Indo-Pacific.' He also expressed his intention to further promote cooperation through the Official Security Assistance program, in which Japan provides friendly nations with defense equipment free of charge. The two sides also agreed to deepen Japan-Philippines and Japan-U.S.-Philippines cooperation. Iwaya also held talks with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn on Wednesday, in which the two sides exchanged views on issues such as the situation in the East and South China Seas.
South China Morning Post
17-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
New Zealand PM says trade wars will cause ‘serious headwinds' to global economy
Noting the 'serious headwinds' the global trade system faces with US President Donald Trump's plan for widespread tariffs, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called on Monday for Indo-Pacific nations to deepen their economic integration through free trade and strengthened supply chains. Advertisement 'Geopolitical calculations are being totally upended,' Luxon said in New Delhi, adding that the world was shifting from globalisation to hypernationalism and from 'openness to xenophobia'. The Trump administration's US trade agenda for 2025 focuses on 'unfair and unbalanced' trade practices and bilateral trade deficits. Trump has also announced reciprocal tariffs against all trading partners starting April 2. With such potentially destabilising issues to confront, the Indo-Pacific economic interdependence that served as an engine for growth, Luxon said, 'can no longer be assumed in an age when decoupling, onshoring, protectionism and trade wars are displacing best-price open markets and integrated supply chains'. 'Previously, we could count on countries respecting the UN Charter, the Law of the Sea and world trade rules that, sadly, cannot be assumed in an age of sharp competition,' he contended, warning that this could lead to 'dangerous miscalculations'. 05:28 Should China be concerned about the latest Japan-Philippines security pact? Should China be concerned about the latest Japan-Philippines security pact? But Luxon did hail Indo-Pacific regional trade alliances as critical tools to navigating the instability to come.
Arab News
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Philippines, Japan agree to boost military ties in ‘increasingly severe' security environment
MANILA: The Philippines and Japan have agreed to deepen defense cooperation in an 'increasingly severe' security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, their defense chiefs said on Monday. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani was on an official visit to Manila, where he held a meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, to discuss regional security issues, including the maritime situation in the East and South China Seas. 'We are not only to enhance existing alliances in terms of the scale of mutually cooperative activities, but also to the scope of these arrangements by also inviting like-minded partners potentially to join these alliances,' Teodoro said at a joint press conference. 'We share also the common cause of resisting any unilateral attempt to reshape the global order without the consent of the participants of this global order and the attempt to reshape international law by force. And this endeavor we will resist.' The Philippines, China and several other countries have overlapping claims in the disputed South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which billions of dollars of goods pass each year. Beijing has maintained its expansive claims of the area, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that China's historical assertion to it had no basis. Security ties between Manila and Tokyo — both US allies — have strengthened in the past two years over shared concerns in the region, with the two countries signing a landmark military pact in 2024, allowing the deployment of their forces on each other's soil for joint military drills. It was Japan's first such pact in Asia. Japan has a long-standing territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, while Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships have been involved in a series of tense incidents in the South China Sea. During their talks on Monday, Nakatani and Teodoro agreed to strengthen operational cooperation by establishing a strategic dialogue mechanism, enhanced people-to-people exchange and by promoting collaboration in defense equipment and technology. 'In today's Japan-Philippines defense meeting, first of all, Secretary Teodoro and I firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe,' Nakatani said through a translator. 'It is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific amid such a situation.' Prof. Renato De Castro, an international studies expert and professor at De La Salle University in Manila, said defense cooperation with Japan is closely linked with the Philippines-US security ties. 'Now Japan is a very vibrant and reliable security partner … You cannot actually separate it from the security relationship with the United States. It's also the enhancement of what I call the base of the US-Japan-Philippines security partnership that was formed last year,' De Castro told Arab News, referring to a summit of the three countries' leaders last April. 'It's really very important in terms of enhancing the capabilities of the three parties to conduct maritime cooperative activities primarily in the South China Sea, and also as preparation for possible contingency in Taiwan.'
