Manila: Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Philippine President Benigno Aquino will seek fresh bilateral military agreements as the United States called on 10-member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and other powerful Asian countries to respond to China’s flexing of naval might in the South China Sea, sources and analysts said.
During Aquino’s visit to Japan from Tuesday to Friday, he and Abe are expected to sign agreements for the export of war material and technology, and forge terms of reference (TOR) for joint war games between Japanese and Filipino soldiers, a foreign affairs source who requested anonymity said.
Japan began reinterpreting its pacifist constitution in 2014, to allow it to export technology and war material to allies, and to forge TORs so that its defence forces can hold joint war games with allies in the region, following Beijing’s intensification of its claims of the whole of the South China Sea, a geopolitical analyst said.
Aquino will address Japan’s Parliament and attend a dinner hosted by Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, Manila’s presidential palace, Malacanang, said.
Aquino will also inspect the 10 multi-purpose response vessels that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) bought from Japan in late 2013, with a $184 million (Dh674.6 million) loan forged with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2014, the same foreign affairs source said.
The vessels will augment PCG’s nine other search and rescue vessels, and 10 more vessels owned by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, when they arrive in the Philippines end of 2015.
In Japan, Aquino’s new shopping list will include a brand new P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft, which is also expected to patrol into the South China Sea, the foreign affairs source said.
The Philippine Navy bought two new frigates bought from South Korea for P18 billion (Dh1.5 billion) in 2013 and two strategic sealift vessels, or floating command centres, which can transport three helicopters per vessel, soldiers, and supplies at sea, from Indonesia’s PT PAL (Persero), for P3.86 billion (Dh321.6 million) in 2013. The frigates and sealift vessels will arrive in the Philippines at the end of 2015 or early 2016.
The newly acquired maritime firepower will be docked at a naval base in Ulugan Bay, Palawan, southwestern Philippines. Another naval base is being developed at Palawan’s Oyster Bay to accommodate troops and naval vessels from Japan, the US, and Vietnam. Both naval bases face the South China Sea.
On May 12, two Japanese warships and a Philippine Navy second class vessel held joint exercises called Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) near the Scarborough Shoal, off central Luzon, where Chinese and Philippine vessels had a standoff starting mid-2012.
China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea and several islands in the Spratly Archipelago. Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim their respective exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea and some parts of Spratlys.
