Japanese and Philippine leaders are to agree this week on a deal paving the way for Tokyo to supply Manila with used military equipment, possibly including aircraft that could be deployed to patrol the disputed South China Sea, sources said.
The deal would mark the first time Japan has agreed to directly donate military equipment to another country and is the latest example of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s more muscular security agenda.
The agreement in principle on military technology is to be announced after Abe and Philippine President Benigno Aquino meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Manila, said three sources in Tokyo who are familiar with the issue.
The Philippines is the nation in the region most at odds with Beijing over the South China Sea. Tokyo has no claims in the waterway, but it is worried about China’s growing military reach into sea lanes through which much of Japan’s ship-borne trade passes.
“APEC is an opportunity for us to show how far our cooperation has come,” one of the sources said.
Abe and Aquino are due to meet tomorrow.
A Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, which the sources said has been handling the agreement, said he had no information on the matter. The Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment, while Philippine military officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
While the South China Sea is not on the formal agenda of the trade-dominated APEC discussions, it is likely to feature in talks on the sidelines.
To allow Japan’s first direct donation of military equipment, Japanese lawmakers would either have to tweak financial regulations that require officials to sell second-hand government-owned equipment at fair market value or other changes.
In other developments, the Philippine Supreme Court yesterday did not announce an expected decision on whether a new security agreement with the US was constitutional, a spokesman said, a reverse for US President Barack Obama, who is due to arrive in Manila today for the APEC summit.
A court source had said last week that the court was likely to uphold the constitutionality of the deal, and that a formal decision from the 15-judge bench would be made yesterday.
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