The Philippines has agreed to buy five coast guard patrol ships from Japan in a deal worth more than US$400 million, Manila said yesterday, as the Southeast Asian nation faces growing Chinese pressure in the South China Sea.
Japan is to loan the Philippines ￥64.38 billion (US$413 million) to buy the five 97m multi-role response vessels and pay for the “development of the required support facilities,” the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“This will support the PCG [Philippine Coast Guard] in improving its capabilities for maritime operations particularly in addressing transnational crimes,” the statement said.
Photo: AFP
Tokyo is a top provider of overseas development assistance to the Philippines.
The Philippine Coast Guard currently has two 97m patrol vessels as part of a fleet seen as inadequate for patrolling waters around the vast archipelago nation.
Its vessels have been involved in several collisions with Chinese coast guard ships around disputed reefs in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely.
Philippine Coast Guard ships have also been fired on with water cannons by the China Coast Guard, with the latest incident happening on April 30 near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島).
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks that make up the shoal lies 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese land mass.
Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines during World War II, but the two nations have since grown closer due to trade and investment, and more recently, to counter China’s assertiveness in the region.
As part of efforts to deepen their security cooperation, Manila and Tokyo are negotiating a defense pact that would allow the nations to deploy troops on each other’s territory.
The leaders of Japan and the Philippines — both longtime allies of the US — were in Washington last month for a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden.
Tensions over the South China Sea, combined with saber rattling over China’s claims to Taiwan, have prompted Biden to boost alliances in the region.
Beijing claims most of the waterway, brushing off rival claims from other nations and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
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