TOKYO—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to offer 5 billion yen ($48.2 million) in loans when he meets with President Rodrigo Duterte this week, diplomatic sources said over the weekend.
The financial support is aimed at helping facilitate agricultural development in Mindanao, according to the sources.
Duterte, who will make his first visit to Japan on Tuesday, was a longtime mayor of Davao on the island.
The deal will come after Duterte’s four-day visit to China last week underlined the Philippines’ diplomatic shift to move closer to Beijing and away from Washington.
Duterte said he would bring up the longstanding territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea during his official visit.
During his arrival ceremony, Duterte said he will be discussing with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mostly “economic cooperation and shared interests.”
“The most important thing there is the shared interests. The shared interest is really about the South China Sea,” Duterte told the reporters, who arrived from his official visit to Brunei, on Saturday.
Both the Philippines and Japan have ongoing territorial disputes with China separately in West Philippine Sea and East China Sea, respectively.
The President said that he will brief Abe about what he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to resolve the ongoing dispute peacefully without any “violent incident” over the sea.
“That will be the meat of what I will tell Japan’s prime minister: that we can only agree to talk peacefully, resolve the dispute, and maybe come up with something that is good for everybody,” he said, stressing that he is not willing to surrender any territory owned by the Philippines.
Duterte also added that there will be possible talks on the South China Sea dispute and that would be either “bilateral or multilateral.”
The President said if the talks are multilateral, he would make sure Japan is included in the talks.
Duterte is set to make his first official visit to Japan as President from Oct. 25 to 27.
The Presidential secretary for operations and special concerns Marie Banaag said Duterte’s visit will build upon the government’s policy thrust of enhancing relations with the country’s neighbors in the region.
Aside from his meeting with Abe, Duterte is also set to make a call on His Majesty Emperor Akihito.
“Prime Minister Abe, in his congratulatory letter’s sent immediately after the President’s election, extended an invitation to visit Japan, which the President graciously accepted when the two leaders met at the sidelines of the Asean Summit Vientiane, Laos last September,” she said.
Banaag said the official visit is expected to bolster the strong strategic partnership between the Philippines and Japan.
Japan has been the Philippines’ top trading and Official Development Assistance partner for many years.
While in Tokyo, the President plans to meet with the Filipino community, which numbers almost 400,000 in Japan. He is also set to meet and speak before Japan’s top business leaders.
The President also plans to observe the process of Japanese shipbuilding as maritime cooperation between the Philippines and Japan continues to progress. The year 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Japan.
“High-level exchanges between the two countries mark this historic occasion which begun with the visit to the Philippines by Japan’s Imperial couple early in the year,” she said.
This was followed by the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, whom the President received in his hometown in Davao City, August 2016; and the meetings of the President with Prime Minister Abe at the sidelines of the Asean Summit in September in Laos.
“The President’s official visit caps these exchanges, which highlights the warm ties of friendship shared by both countries. The President places great value on the Philippines’ vibrant and dynamic relationship based on mutual trust and respect with Japan,” Banaag said.
