FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana are flying to Tokyo this weekend to meet their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, for their first 2-plus-2 meeting.
Holding the 2+2 Foreign and Defense Ministerial Dialogue was part of the agreement between President Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio during their tele-summit in November 2021.
“The meeting is expected to lay the groundwork for PH-Japan security partnership in the next decade,” the DFA said in a statement.
Both Japan and Philippines have common security threat with the growing Chinese maritime presence. The Philippines has a long-running territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, while Japan and China have overlapping claims in Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
“The 2+2 is the next logical progression in the deepening policy and security cooperation between the two countries, and is envisioned to be a key component in further strengthening the decade-old PH-Japan Strategic Partnership,” the DFA said.
This will be the second 2-plus-2 talks of the Philippines. The first one was with defense treaty ally, United States, in November 2021.
“The close ties between the two countries for six decades now continue to expand to various areas of cooperation, and have resulted in the improvement of the Philippines’s maritime law enforcement capabilities, increased maritime domain awareness, and enhanced counterterrorism and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) capabilities, among other areas,” the DFA added.
Then in mid-April, Japan will also hold a similar 2-plus-2 dialogue with India, with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also expected to go to Tokyo.
Both countries are members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, together with the US and Australia. Once a loose group, now Quad was reinvigorated in 2021 as its member countries become more aligned in their shared concerns about China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the region. Japan and Australia are treaty allies of the US, too.