<\/p>\n
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is studying the possibility of allowing Japanese military forces to join the Balikatan military exercises next year between the Philippines and the US following the successful Philippines-US-Japan trilateral summit in Washington, DC.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In an interview with members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), President Marcos said he does not see any reason not to include the Japanese in the Balikatan exercises, which is traditionally held between the Philippines and the US military.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, Balikatan is traditionally between the Philippines and the US. That\u2019s part of our military defense treaty that we hold these exercises every year,\u201d President Marcos said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow, with the inclusion of Japan, and to some of these exercises that we\u2019ve been doing, not only Balikatan, but others, I don\u2019t see any reason why Japan should not be part of those exercises in the future \u2026 And, I think that may be something that we can study,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Marcos recently concluded a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the White House in Washington, DC where the three countries reiterated their strong commitment to economic and maritime cooperation.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The chief executive said the inclusion of Japan in the military exercises \u201cis a good move\u201d for the Philippines as it will make easier for the country to work together, to coordinate and focus on areas where the problems are, and maximize the resources.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He added that Japan\u2019s participation to Balikatan exercises will also maintain the peace and stability, freedom of navigation and adhere \u201ctotally and completely, and constantly to the rule of international law\u201d particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Asked if it\u2019s possible that Japanese forces be included in the 2025 exercises, President Marcos said the Philippines and the US have to conclude the Balikatan exercises this year first before deciding on the matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Balikatan exercise that we\u2019re coming into now are the largest exercises that we have ever had. The most complex, and it touches on areas that we have never really had to deal with before, specifically cybersecurity, command and control,\u201d President Marcos said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAll of these things that we did not do before, that previously we had not included in our coordinative efforts for Balikatan. So, let\u2019s go and then after that, we\u2019ll look again, where, how the trilateral agreement has allowed us to more options, to include Japan, and, we\u2019ll see and I, for one, have no objection to such idea,\u201d he added.<\/strong>It is the first time in nine years that a Philippine president has attended the FOCAP forum. The chief executive\u2019s father, former president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., started the tradition as he was the first Philippine leader to grace the event 50 years ago<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is studying the possibility of allowing Japanese military forces to join the Balikatan military exercises next year between the Philippines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5052,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/5052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}