Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he’s open to a potential reciprocal military access agreement with Japan if it would protect the country’s fishermen and its maritime territory.
“I don’t see why we should not adopt it,” Marcos said, according to a transcript of his interview with reporters on his flight back on Sunday from a five-day official visit to Japan. The Philippines is studying if the potential pact will indeed help the country and won’t intensify tensions in the South China Sea.
“We have to be careful also because we do not want to appear provocative. That instead of calming the situation in the South China Sea, we would heighten it, right? That’s not what we want,” Marcos said.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida raised the prospect of such agreement “very briefly” during their meeting, Marcos said. Both leaders last week oversaw agreements bolstering military and infrastructure ties between the two U.S. allies amid concerns about China’s growing power in the region.
In January, Japan signed an agreement with the U.K. to allow military forces to be deployed to one another’s territory, as Tokyo expands bilateral cooperation with other American allies. This month, the U.S. secured access to more Philippine military bases as tensions with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea persist.
—With assistance from Philip J. Heijmans.
