ISTANBUL

Japan and the Philippines Monday agreed to boost defense ties through “strategic dialogue,” as well as defense equipment and technology cooperation, Kyodo News reported.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Filipino counterpart Gilberto Teodoro in Manila agreed to set up a high-level framework to promote further defense equipment and technology cooperation, said Nakatani, according to the report.

“With the increasingly severe security environment, we firmly agreed on the need to elevate defense cooperation to a higher level," he added.

Tokyo and Manila are old allies of the US in the wider Asia-Pacific region, with Japan hosting over 50,000 American soldiers, while the Philippines has granted access to American forces to Filipino military bases.

The two US allies' forging closer defense ties comes amid the expanding economic and military influence of China in the region where Washington has sought to counter Beijing.

Under its official security assistance, Japan in 2023 exported air defense radars to the Philippines and will also give coastal surveillance radars to Manila.

The two sides will also begin talks on an accord to “protect confidential security information to facilitate intelligence exchanges,” said Nakatani.

The Philippines is also holding discussions to "allow military forces from New Zealand, Canada, and France to train in the Philippines" under Visiting Forces Agreements, the daily Phil Star reported.

Separately, Tokyo has said it will provide Mongolia with a radar system.

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, documents were signed early this month to provide the 1.3 billion-yen ($8.7 million) air traffic control radar system to the nation landlocked between China and Russia.