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The trigger that led Japan and the Philippines to ink the deal was because of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea.
China's coast guard increased the frequency and intensity of incursions into Philippine waters, provoking the Philippines to take countermeasures to deter China, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
In a major development and against the backdrop of growing tensions in the South China Sea where several countries have contending sovereignty claims and China claiming almost in its entirety, the Philippines that has a major spat with China entered into a crucial military agreement with Japan on July 8, 2024 permitting the deployment of their forces on each other's soil.
The agreement marked a decisive step forward in Japan-Philippine defenCe partnership.
The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) was signed by the two nations' foreign and defense ministers in Manila following a follow-up to a meeting held in Tokyo in April 2022.
The defence pact marks a historically significant step in reconciliation between Tokyo and Manila following Japan's savage World War II occupation and brutalities in the Philippines during which more than 500,000 Filipinos were reportedly killed.
This time, the defence pact combines their defence forces against a larger common threat -- China.
The astounding speed in which both Japan and the Philippines signed the RAA deepening their ties in matters of security, both countries have become now 'quasi allies'.
The RAA was first discussed between Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos during the former's visit to the Philippines in 2023.
After the agreement, the RAA would allow troops from Japan and the Philippines to enter each other's territory for joint exercises and other cooperative activities.
The RAA 'will facilitate the implementation of cooperative activities, such as joint exercises and disaster relief between Japan and the Philippines and improve interoperability between the forces of the two countries.'
The larger objective is to promote security and defense cooperation between the two countries that support peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
While Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo remarked the RAA brought the bilateral defence partnership 'to an unprecedented height', Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara described it as a 'groundbreaking' deal that would 'enhance cooperation' between the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The joint statement underscored the need 'for the international community to speak out on the importance of maintaining and strengthening the free and open international order based on the rule of law"'in the disputed waters, a policy that India too endorses.
It may be noted that the Philippines is the third country with which Japan signed a reciprocal access pact, following Australia and the United Kingdom. It is also negotiating a similar agreement with France.
This landmark RAA deal with the Philippines is Japan's first with a member of the ASEAN and the first of its kind for Japan in Asia, setting a framework to ease the entry of foreign personnel and equipment for military cooperation between the two nations.
The trigger that led Japan and the Philippines to ink the deal was because of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea.
Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took power two years back, China has increased its aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea to assert its claims.
The Hague international tribunal ruled in July 2016 that China's claims had no legal basis, a decision that Beijing continues to reject.
Its coast guard increased the frequency and intensity of incursions into Philippine waters, provoking the Philippines to take countermeasures to deter China.
In recent incidents, Chinese coast guard ships have used water cannons against Philippine vessels near disputed shoals, and there have been several confrontations between Chinese and Philippine forces.
Philippine has a garrison unit at Second Thomas Shoal, a Philippine-occupied feature in the Spratly Islands and the Philippine navy is engaged with resupplying activities.
China has been consistently trying to prevent the Philippine navy from doing its job.
This has resulted in a series of dangerous high-seas encounters.
The latest in such skirmishes at sea was on June 17 in which eight Filipino personnel were injured.
Philippines accused China's behaviour as an 'act of piracy]'.
Because of this, the ministers from both Japan and the Philippines expressed serious concerns over the dangerous and escalatory actions by China at Second Thomas Shoal.
The busy sea passage is a key and crucial global trade route which has been claimed virtually in its entirety by China but also contested in part by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Kamikawa was forceful in remarking that Tokyo was opposed to 'unilateral attempts' if a particular country tries to change status quo by force and coercion.
Japan, though not a claimant in the South China Sea, faces its own maritime dispute with China in the East China Sea over the Senkaku Islands.
The Philippines protested the Chinese coast guard's actions and demanded $1 million for the damage.
In return China accused the Philippines of instigating the violence, saying the Filipino sailors strayed into what it called Chinese territorial waters despite warnings.
The international community, including Japan and the United States, expressed serious concern over China's actions and called on Beijing to abide by international laws.
The US is bound by its treaty obligations to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Beijing is best advised to be aware of this and desist from any adventurism.
With the RAA now, the Philippines would be feeling reassured of its security.
Japan too echoes the same sentiment and stresses the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and regional stability.
Though the Philippines has strengthened ties with the US, Japan too has become an important part of the Philippines' strategy.
This trilateral relationship can be understood if one notes that in April 2024, President Biden hosted the first Japan-US-Philippines Summit in Washington, thereby making a commitment to strengthen security and defence cooperation including through dialogues among defence authorities and joint exercises, as well as maritime safety cooperation.
The RAA will take effect once it is ratified by the Philippine senate and the Japanese Diet.
The significance of India's recent export of the supersonic BrahMos missiles may be understood in this background too.
In response to the deteriorating security environment surrounding Japan, then prime minister Abe Shinzo made sincere efforts to break the shackles of the constraints imposed on Japan by its constitution.
In contention is Article 9, which needs to be amended but the process is too complicated.
Abe tried but failed. Instead he reinterpreted Article 9 and diluted the spirit by adopting collective self-defence.
Kishida is only following in Abe's footsteps and has gone a step further to boost Japan's security and defensive firepower, including a counter-strike capability that breaks from the country's post-war principle of focusing only on self-defence.
In December 2023, Japan announced its largest military build-up since World War II, aiming to bolster its defensive capabilities in response to perceived threats from China and North Korea.
Kishida decided to double Japan's defence spending in a five-year period to 2027 to bolster Japan's military power and make Japan the world's third-largest military spender after the US and China.
China's Response to the RAA
China's response to the Japan-Philippine RAA agreement was quick and sharp as expected.
In its response, Beijing referred to Japan's history as a colonial power in Southeast Asia.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reminded that during World War II, Japan had invaded many Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines and colonised and therefore should seriously reflect on its history of aggression and be cautious in words and deeds in the field of military security.
Beijing reminded that 'the Asia-Pacific does not need military blocs, let alone small groupings that instigate bloc confrontations or a new Cold War'.
China is aware that with the background of Japan's brutal aggression during World War II in Southeast Asia, any move by Japan to bolster its security posture in the current situation still remains a sensitive issue in the region.
To pin down and demoralise Japan, Beijing reminds again and again the past to defame Japan.
Japan and the Philippines, however, have steadily deepened security and defence ties.
Even before the RAA between Japan and the Philippines, Japan has been providing the Philippines with coastal surveillance radars under its official security assistance programme, aimed to enhance the Philippines' deterrence capabilities.
With the RAA, Marcos aims to enhance the Philippines' limited military's capacity to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea.
One of the crucial advantages that the Philippines could draw from the RAA in tackling the Chinese threat in the South China Sea is that it will allow Japan to participate fully in the annual Balikatan military exercises that the Philippines conducts with the US.
Previously Japanese forces could only participate in humanitarian assistance and disaster response exercises and as observers in select drills only.
With the signing of the RAA, all the restrictions on military exchanges between the AFP and JSDF were lifted.
This would allow now the AFP to conduct military exercise with the SDF that is as big as the Balikatan drills.
Balikatan is an annual military exercise between the Philippines and its treaty ally, United States.
It is designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust and cooperation between the two forces.
Both Japan and the Philippines now need to determine specific design for such envisioned exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Japan Self-Defense Forces to make it unique from other bilateral exercise the Armed Forces of the Philippines has with other countries.
It transpires therefore that the Japan-Philippines defence pact represents a significant step in the evolving security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region.
The larger objective is to enhance their military cooperation to counterbalance China's assertiveness and growing influence in the region.
Dr Rajaram Panda is a former senior fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com