Manila and Tokyo are right to double down on ties | The Philippine Star – newspaper

Japan’s decision to overhaul laws on the sale of weapons in April was welcomed warmly in Manila.

The Department of National Defense can now purchase lethal weapons from Japanese firms, like warships, drones and missiles. Before, arms exports were strictly limited to non-lethal equipment.

The reforms were followed by Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s recent visit to Manila. He met with Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., in very amicable scenes, to discuss the transfer of Japanese defense equipment and the implementation of the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA).

Domestic politics aside, the Marcos administration has struck the right chord on foreign policy, particularly enlisting security partners, not least Japan, to ensure a balance-of-power in the Indo-Pacific in the face of China’s maritime expansion.

Three of the five countries that signed visiting forces agreements with the Philippines did so under the current administration, namely Canada, New Zealand, France and Japan. In particular, Japan is perhaps the most significant relationship apart from the US; Tokyo, after all, is Manila’s largest source of Official Development Assistance.

These “offshore balancers” help offset China’s asymetric advantage over the Philippines, leveraging Manila’s strategic geography as a fulcrum for minilateral security arrangements, joint military training and ultimately power projection.

Tokyo is akin to a “natural ally,” having pioneered and long pushed for the concept of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.” As a fellow archipelago, there is a broad alignment of threat perceptions and the preference for a rules-based international order.