Japan and the Philippines are solidifying their bilateral cooperation into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to counter Chinese coercion, particularly regarding a potential Taiwan Strait contingency. This partnership, codified in their new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, challenges the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) irredentist maritime claims by encompassing defense hardware, intelligence sharing, and maritime delimitation in waters east of Taiwan, contesting Beijing’s claims through international law.
The PRC views this as a “quasi-alliance” and has responded with maritime patrol operations east of Taiwan, sanctioning Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr., and issuing diplomatic condemnations. Japan and the Philippines are recalibrating defense postures due to greater burden-sharing expectations from the Trump administration, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth viewing these efforts favorably as complementary to the Indo-Pacific posture. Japan also ended its post-WWII lethal weapons export restrictions in April, facilitating the transfer of used Abukuma-class destroyer escorts to the Philippine Navy and participating as a full combatant in the Balikatan exercise, firing Type 88 anti-ship missiles overseas for the first time.
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