Japan, Philippines Plan Defense Equipment Export Framework; Defense Ministers to Meet in Manila on Saturday

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:22 JST, February 19, 2025

With a view to exporting defense equipment from Japan to the Philippines, the two governments will likely establish a new framework for consultations between their defense authorities at the director-general level, according to Japanese government sources.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani is expected to visit Manila from Saturday and reach an agreement with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on the envisaged framework.

The establishment of this new framework aims to strengthen Japan-Philippines cooperation in response to China’s increasingly hegemonic behavior.

Japan’s first export of completed defense 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 Defense Equipment and Technology limit the export of completed defense equipment to five categories, including vigilance, the export of destroyers is expected take the form of a joint development project.

The Defense Ministry and defense-related company officials are planning to visit the Philippines soon to learn Manila’s needs.

China Coast Guard vessels have repeatedly intruded into territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and have continued to engage in coercive actions such as ramming Philippine ships in the South China Sea.

At the defense chiefs’ talks, Japan and the Philippines are expected to confirm their opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo in the East and South China Seas. The two sides are also 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 U.S. and Australian forces.