Tokyo (VNA) – Japan and the Philippines are likely to establish a new framework for consultations between their defense authorities with a view to exporting defence equipment from Japan to the Philippines, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported on February 19 as citing Japanese government sources.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani is expected to visit Manila from February 22 and reach an agreement with Philippine Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on the envisaged framework. The establishment of this new framework aims to strengthen Japan-Philippines defence cooperation.
Japan’s first export of completed defence equipment was of air surveillance radar systems to the Philippines in 2023. Japan is considering exporting more radars to the Philippines, as well as the Ground Self-Defense Force’s high-mobility vehicles and the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s destroyers.
As the implementation guidelines for Japan’s Three Principles on Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology limit the export of completed defence equipment to five categories, including vigilance, the export of destroyers is expected take the form of a joint development project.
At the coming talks, Japan and the Philippines are expected to agree on procedures for the entry into force of a bilateral reciprocal access agreement to facilitate joint training between the Self-Defense Forces and the Philippine military, as well as on strengthening multilateral joint exercises that will involve the US and Australian forces./.
