Philippines to allow Japan to use its military bases against Chinese aggression
Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces helicopters fly over armourd vehicles during an annual live fire exercise
Picture: AFP/Getty Images
By Agencies
12:52PM BST 05 Jun 2015
Talks on allowing Japanese military aircraft and naval vessels to use Philippines bases as Chinese warship reportedly fires on Filipino fishing boat
The Philippines and Japan are to start talks on allowing Japanese military aircraft and naval vessels to use bases in the Philippines.
Use of the bases for refuelling and picking up supplies will enable Japan to extend its patrol range deep into the South China Sea, Philippines president Benigno Aquino said.
"We will be starting discussion on this," Aquino said at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday during a state visit to Japan.
The talks come as the Philippines on Friday expressed concern over reports a Chinese warship has fired a warning shot on a Filipino fishing boat near a reclaimed reef in the disputed South China Sea, Manila's defence minister said.
China has been rapidly expanding its occupied reefs in the Spratly archipelago, alarming other claimants, and drawing sharp criticism from the United States, Japan and European States.
"If indeed this happened, it is a cause of grave concern." Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin told journalists in a text message from Tokyo, where he joined a four-day state visit by Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 million in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims.
Japan is considering joint air patrols with the United States in the South China Sea, sources told Reuters in April, in response to China's increasingly assertive push for influence as it builds air strips and other man-made islands in the disputed waters.
A Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), would clear the way for the Japanese military to use Philippines' bases on a rotational basis, similar to the way the US does now. An ability to refuel close to the South China Sea would allow Japan's Self Defence Forces to keep their aircraft on patrol longer and cover a greater distance.
The decision to start talks on a VFA was not included in a joint statement on Thursday after Aquino met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The two leaders, however, discussed the VFA and agreed to open up negotiations, a source with knowledge of the meeting told Reuters. He declined to be identified because he is not authorised to talk to the media.
Aquino's trip comes as the two countries deepen their security ties. Unable to match the scale of the Chinese fleet, Manila is looking for allies in its territorial spat with China. Tokyo is concerned that Chinese land reclamation projects in the South China Sea will expand Beijing's influence in a region through which about $5 trillion of seaborne trade passes annually, much of it heading to and from Japan.
In an interview in January, Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, told Reuters that Washington would welcome Japanese air patrols there because their presence would provide a stabilising counterweight to a growing fleet of Chinese fishing and naval vessels.
The Philippines on Friday expressed concern over reports a Chinese warship has fired a warning shot on a Filipino fishing boat near a reclaimed reef in the disputed South China Sea, Manila's defence minister said.
China has been rapidly expanding its occupied reefs in the Spratly archipelago, alarming other claimants, and drawing sharp criticism from the United States, Japan and European States.
"If indeed this happened, it is a cause of grave concern." Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin told journalists in a text message from Tokyo, where he joined a four-day state visit by Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 million in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims.
All but Brunei have fortified bases in the Spratlys, which are roughly 1,300 km (800 miles) from the Chinese mainland but much closer to the Southeast Asian claimants.
In Tokyo, Aquino said his nation was ready to start talks with Japan on allowing Japanese military aircraft and naval vessels to use Philippine bases to refuel and resupply, extending Tokyo's range of operations into the South China Sea.
On Wednesday, Aquino made a veiled comparison between China's activities in the South China Sea and Nazi Germany's expansionism before World War Two.
