HEARTENING, that the Philippines and Japan have agreed to strengthen their security cooperation following an “agreement in principle” to have the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, or ACSA.
This emerged during a meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Sunday, on the sidelines of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Neither side provided a timeline for the signing of ACSA, under negotiation since April, during a visit to Manila by former Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, which follows the Reciprocal Access Agreement or RAA, in force since last month after Manila and Tokyo signed it on July 8, 2024 – ratified by the Philippine Senate last December and the Japanese Diet last June.
The five-day inaugural activity ending on Oct. 11, the “Doshin-Bayanihan 5-25,” a combined training exercise between the Philippine Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the Dept. of National Defense said.
The RAA, which facilitates the mutual movement of military forces for joint exercises and other activities, provides a legal framework for the visiting forces of Japan and the Philippines to be present in each other’s territories for specific cooperative activities like joint training and exercises.
This is expected to be enhanced by ACSA, which allows the exchange and provision of logistics, like fuel, food, transportation, and medical services, between the two countries’ armed forces.
The meeting between President Marcos and Japan’s PM Takaichi underlines what the former said earlier that the Philippines, continuously harassed by its giant neighbor China in the West Philippine Sea, is ready to deepen cooperation with other nations to confront “unpredictable” security challenges in the Indo-Pacific.
The 68-year-old President Marcos has repeatedly emphasized Manila will never compromise its sovereignty even as it strengthens alliances with friendly neighboring nations.
This puts Manila’s role “at the forefront” of regional tensions, citing daily harassment faced by Philippine vessels and fisherfolk in the West Philippine Sea, within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
“Today, the most significant threat to the peace and stability we strive for is right here in our own neighborhood, here in the Indo-Pacific region. And this is not just an opinion. It is a fact,” President Marcos had said.
The Philippines and China have been locked in a long-standing maritime dispute over parts of the West Philippine Sea, part of the vast South China Sea which Beijing claims entirely as its own, although a 2016 arbitral tribunal has ruled in favor of Manila and invalidated Beijing’s expansive claim.
President Marcos said collective action is now “absolutely essential” as he described today’s challenges as “not bound by borders.”
