Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 4) – The Japanese government maintained that strengthening Philippine-Japan security ties through the proposed Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) is not intended to contain other countries in the region.
Japanese Press Secretary and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesperson Maki Kobayashi reiterated that the RAA will mutually benefit the Philippines and Japan, which are both maritime nations, in maintaining peace and stability in the region.
\”It is important to enhance partnership, network and resilience capability and building cooperation between our two countries,\” said Kobayashi, who spoke with select members of the Philippine media on Saturday.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the start of negotiations for the RAA during their bilateral meeting on Friday.
READ: PH, Japan begin talks for VFA-like agreement
The Japanese leader added that details of the agreement will have to be ironed out after a series of technical meetings.
No timeline is set on the RAA, but Japan also entered into a similar agreement with the United Kingdom and Australia. The one with the UK lasted for almost two years.
\”The RAA will be for deciding visiting procedures, cost-sharing for visiting and receiving states, or any possible tax exemptions, or equipment exchanges, so we don’t have to go through cumbersome clearance procedures,\” Kobayashi said in a separate interview with CNN Philippines.
She also insisted that the RAA and the official security assistance of Japan is not meant to contain any particular nation.
\”It’s not destinated to any specific country, we consider that it’s important to increase the resilience, increase capacity, because the Philippines is situated in a very important ceiling not only for us, but for the region and for the international community,\” she said.
