Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Sunday said there is no reason why the Philippines should not have a visiting forces agreement (VFA) with Japan if it would boost maritime security and ensure greater protection for fishers.
However, Marcos also told reporters he would exercise care in pursuing a potential pact with Tokyo “because we do not want to appear provocative.”
Marcos’ first visit to Japan since taking office came after he granted the US access to additional military bases in the Philippines under a VFA, a move which China said undermined regional stability and raised tensions.
Photo: Reuters
The agreement provides rules for the rotation of thousands of US troops in and out of the Philippines for exercises.
“If it will be of help to the Philippines in terms of protecting, for example, our fishermen, protecting our maritime territory ... I don’t see why we should not adopt it,” Marcos said before returning home on Sunday.
Marcos was in Japan for a five-day visit, to forge closer security ties with Tokyo, which in December announced its biggest military buildup since World War II, fueled by concerns about aggressive Chinese actions in the region.
Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida penned a deal to allow their armed forces to work together during disaster relief, an agreement seen as a step toward a broader pact that could allow the countries to deploy forces on each other’s soil.
“I always think about the need to protect our fishermen. We need to show clearly we are patrolling our waters and making sure that our maritime territory is clearly recognized,” Marcos said.
The Philippines has a VFA with the US, while Tokyo has VFAs with Australia and Britain, and also hosts the largest concentration of US forces abroad.
Japan held military exercises with the US and the Philippines as recently as October, and its military presence in the Philippines could help counter Chinese influence in the South China Sea, much of which Beijing claims, including the territory that Manila considers its own.
Kishida said the Philippines and Japan had agreed to try and establish a framework that would “strengthen and smooth the process of holding joint exercises.”
Marcos told Japanese media on Sunday that his country could be pulled into a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait because of its proximity to the nation.
“When we look at the situation in the area, especially tensions in the Taiwan Strait, we can see that just by our geographical location, should there in fact be conflict in that area ... it’s very hard to imagine a scenario where the Philippines will not somehow get involved,” Marcos said.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS