TOKYO - Japan will provide a radar system and unmanned aircraft worth 4.3 billion yen ($27 million) to the Philippine military under its security aid framework for like-minded partners, the Japanese government said Monday, amid China's maritime assertiveness in regional waters.
The provision of a coastal radar system to the Philippine Navy will be the first transfer of a completed Japanese-made defense product utilizing Tokyo's "official security assistance" program launched in 2023, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Katsuro Kitagawa and Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro signed the agreements, which also include provision of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance missions to the Philippine Air Force, in Manila.
The project is of "great importance in further promoting security cooperation between Japan and the Philippines, enhancing security of important sea lanes for Japan, and contributing to maintaining and strengthening regional peace and stability," the ministry said.
Security cooperation between Japan and the Philippines has been deepening in recent years, with the two U.S. allies in Asia sharing concerns over China's growing military activities in the Indo-Pacific.
Beijing claims the Tokyo-controlled, uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and remains locked in territorial disputes in the South China Sea with the Philippines and other countries.
