Philippine President Marcos Embarks on 4-Day Visit to Japan – The Diplomat read full article at worldnews365.me

ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday launched into a four-day working go to to Japan that’s aimed toward reinforcing the “strong and vibrant relations” between the 2 international locations.

The working go to, which can run from February 8 till February 12, will embody a gathering with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and an viewers with Emperor Naruhito. In a statement delivered previous to his departure from Manila, Marcos described the journey as “essential” and stated that it could give attention to reinforcing the 2 nations’ ever-closer protection and funding ties.

The journey “is part of a larger foreign policy agenda to forge closer political ties, stronger defense, and security cooperation, as well as lasting economic partnerships with major countries in the region amid a challenging global environment,” Marcos stated.

Whereas in Japan, he stated his workforce will work on additional strengthening “the bonds of friendship with a close neighbor, like-minded and future-oriented like us in many ways, and a most reliable partner in times of both crises and prosperity.”

In a press release, the Philippine Division of Overseas Affairs said that Marcos will witness the signing of at the least seven key agreements specializing in infrastructure growth, protection, agriculture and knowledge and communications know-how. It additionally stated that he was anticipated to finalize $2.7 billion in funding offers that might create 8,000 jobs within the Philippines.

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Marcos’ go to to Japan – his ninth abroad journey since taking workplace in July of final yr – comes on the heels of a significant improve within the Philippines’ relationship with the USA, through which Marcos’ administration agreed to offer U.S. forces entry to 4 further army bases, together with on the northern island of Luzon. The entry has been granted underneath the 2014 Enhanced Protection Cooperation Settlement (EDCA), which fell into abeyance underneath the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who spurned the nation’s U.S. alliance and pivoted the nation towards nearer relations with China.

Good relations with Japan, in the meantime, have been one of many constants of Philippine overseas relations courting proper again to 1977, when former Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo delivered his well-known “Fukuda Doctrine” speech in Manila. The speech immediately addressed imperial Japan’s brutal occupation of huge elements of Southeast Asia throughout World Battle II and helped finish a darkish chapter of Tokyo’s relations with the area. Certainly, in more moderen occasions, Japan is likely one of the few nations that managed to take care of good relations with the Philippines by means of the lurching transition from the pro-American administration of Benigno Aquino III (2010-2016) to the tumultuous Duterte period, and now to the Marcos administration.

Specifically, Manila and Tokyo have lately augmented their long-standing financial ties – Japan was the primary nation to sign a free trade agreement with the Philippines, in 2008 – with nearer protection cooperation.

The 2 nations signed a strategic partnership in 2011 and 5 years later, brokered a new defense agreement permitting the switch of protection tools and know-how from Japan to the Philippines. Since then, Japan has helped modernize the Philippine Coast Guard, and sent observers to final yr’s Kamandag 6 struggle video games between the U.S. and Philippine militaries, whereas boosting its personal bilateral army workout routines with the Philippine army.

This convergence displays their shared sense of risk from China, with which they each have unresolved maritime and territorial disputes, within the South China and East China seas, respectively. Each nations would additionally doubtless expertise the backwash from any battle over Taiwan, which lies between the 2 nations. So long as the regional tensions between China and the U.S. and its companions proceed, we will anticipate additional convergences between Tokyo and Manila.