Japan will seek to bolster military ties with the Philippines during a visit to Manila by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that comes after tensions escalated between Beijing and the Southeast Asian nation over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Japan will pledge to provide defense equipment to the Philippine military under a new aid framework and the two governments are expected to start talks on an agreement governing mutual access for one another’s troops, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun. Kishida was set to meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday and will give the first-ever speech by a Japanese prime minister to the Philippine Congress on Saturday.
The two countries will reaffirm cooperation on “maintaining the free and open international order based on the rule of law,” Kishida told reporters before departing Tokyo.
