Philippines to receive coastal surveillance radar system from Japan

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is the first recipient of Japan’s newly launched Official Security Assistance (OSA).

During a working lunch with Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo on Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said that Japan would provide a coastal surveillance radar system to the Philippines under the OSA, strengthen bilateral coast guard coordination and provide additional patrol vessels through Japan’s official development assistance.

Kamikawa and Manalo also committed to enhance the two countries’ supply chain resilience and cooperation in human resource development for the semiconductor sector.

The two countries are also strengthening cooperation in cybersecurity.

Kamikawa noted that Japan and the Philippines have made concrete progress in a wide range of areas of cooperation in the past several years.

Defense Minister Kihara Minoru credited President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the great strides in defense cooperation and exchanges the two nations have taken.

“The signature of the Reciprocal Access Agreement today represents the cooperative relationship that our two nations enjoy. And I welcome this new development, which reinforces the effectiveness of our defense cooperation,” Kihara told Marcos.

“I am committed to working with my good colleague, Secretary Teodoro, to further enhance our defense cooperation and exchanges in order to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kihara said.

“The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations are situated in a very strategically important region, placed in a key junction of Japan’s sea-lanes. Advancing defense cooperation and exchanges with the Philippines is important for Japan,” Kihara said.

In his remarks after the signing of the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Philippines now looks forward to “putting into flesh, so to speak, the steps forward, now that we have upgraded our partnership one level higher by the signing of the RAA.”

“This is another milestone in our shared endeavor to ensure a rules-based international order to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and particularly in our