Japan has signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with the Philippines, allowing it to dispatch Self-Defense Forces to the country. This follows Japan’s similar agreements with Australia and the U.K. and is expected to heighten tensions with China regarding the South China Sea.
NHK Broadcasting reported on the 8th that Japan’s foreign and defense ministers, Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara, and their Philippine counterparts, Enrique Manalo and Gilberto Teodoro, signed the RAA at the Presidential Palace in Manila under the watch of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The RAA is an agreement that simplifies procedures such as the entry of mutual troops and weapon importation during joint military training. Japan enacted the RAA with Australia for the first time in August of last year and signed the RAA with the U.K. in the same year in January.
Under the RAA, Japan can send troops to the other country for joint training, and the dispatched troops can stay in the agreement country in a temporary rotating stationing form, not permanent stationing. The Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, which Japan and the U.S. have concluded, also contains similar content to the RAA. The RAA concluded with the Philippines will take effect after approval by the National Assembly.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the Philippines in November of last year and agreed with Marcos Jr. to start negotiations for the conclusion of the RAA. Since taking office in 2022, Marcos Jr. has abandoned the pro-China line of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. Instead, he is aligning with the U.S. and Japan, causing increased friction with China.
Japan’s agreements with Australia and the Philippines, both allies of the U.S., aim to restrain China’s maritime expansion. With this agreement, Japan has been able to list its name as an official participant and not as an observer in the large-scale annual joint training between the U.S. and the Philippines, such as Balikatan.
In April, Kishida and Marcos Jr. held the first trilateral summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington D.C., and promised to build a three-country joint defense system.
NHK evaluated this agreement as a measure to strengthen alliances with foreign countries regarding security as China strengthens its maritime expansion in the South China Sea.
