DND officer-in-charge, Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr. (PNA photo by Joey Razon)
MANILA – Department of National Defense (DND) officer-in-charge, Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr. said he sees more engagements between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and its Japanese counterparts.
"We have a very robust defense cooperation with Japan, particularly with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Japan continues to be an observer in our 'Balikatan" Exercises and just lately we had our 2+2 (Meeting) and a lot of things came out of that, we are trying to come up with terms of reference, umbrella terms of reference where we could participate more particularly on HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster response)," Faustino said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Thursday.
He was referring to the successful Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting (2+2) between the Philippines and Japan last April.
The defense chief also said he earlier met with Japan Parliamentary Vice Defense Minister Tsuyohito Iwamoto where they both reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries to ensuring rules-based international law and rules-based order in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
"Right now I think there will be more engagements as we talked about and the collaboration will continue and I see robust cooperation in the near future with Japan," Faustino said.
Meanwhile, Iwamoto noted that the meeting is a manifestation of the two countries’ growing bilateral strategic partnership.
The Japanese official visited the Philippines last July 17 to 18 where he paid courtesy calls on key Philippine defense and military officials.
Also on Thursday, Fasutino met Japan's outgoing and incoming defense attachés to the country.
In a statement, DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said Faustino congratulated outgoing defense attaché Col. Nakano Yu for successfully ending his three-year tour of duty (TOD) and commended the significant development of Philippines-Japan defense relations during his term despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
These developments included sustained education and training exchanges, increased humanitarian assistance and disaster response collaboration, and elevated dialogue mechanisms between the two defense establishments.
Faustino, meanwhile, welcomed Nakano's successor, Col. Akiba Kazuiko, stressing that he is looking forward to further enhancing defense cooperation between the two countries.
Akiba also highlighted how far the Philippine defense sector has come since his first visit to the Philippines and committed to working on the development of Manila-Tokyo defense relations.
He also noted that the Philippines and Japan have reached the golden age of their bilateral relations. (PNA)
