DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 April) – The conduct of the Balikatan Exercises from April 20 to May 8 in several parts of the Philippines is not a hostile act against any country, particularly China, a Japanese diplomat said.
“As I understand, the exercises are not targeted at any country. And it’s being conducted for joint exercise for peace and stability in the region, I don’t think it is targeted at any other country,” Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuya Endo said in an interview at the Consulate General of Japan in Davao on Friday.
Japan is among the seven countries participating in the military exercises, along with the Philippines, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand.
Despite China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea, the Japanese diplomat said the purpose of Balikatan is to deepen mutual understanding among their respective troops and to enhance interoperability among the participating nations’ military forces.
Endo said Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) will be deploying 1,400 personnel, as well as military assets, including aircraft, in the upcoming exercises.
He said Japan had participated in the previous Balikatan exercises but only in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
He said this will be the first Balikatan in which Japan is participating since the signing of the Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement on July 8, 2024, and its entry into force on September 11, 2025.
The agreement, he said, allowed Japan’s SDF “to engage in a larger area of exercises in Balikatan.”
According to a press release issued by the US Embassy, the staging of the 18-day military exercise, which will coincide with the 75th anniversary of the U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty, will see the participation of 17,000 personnel from the seven countries.
Seventeen other nations will join as part of the international observer program.
It said that the exercise will feature cutting-edge training across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains.
It said field training exercises throughout the Philippines will culminate in capstone events to rehearse warfighting skills in maritime security, coastal defense, and the integration of combined and joint fires.
Dynamic maritime sustainment and distributed logistics through ship-to-shore equipment offloads and movements will also form part of the exercises, it added.
The embassy said ships from four countries will participate in a multi-day multilateral maritime exercise along the west coast of the Philippines, conducting deck landing qualifications, live-fire gunnery, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue training.
There will also be “humanitarian and civic assistance activities, including engineering and construction projects and community health engagements at five locations across the archipelago to directly benefit Filipino communities and strengthen humanitarian assistance preparedness.” (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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