There will be no joint maritime patrols between Japan and Philippines happening anytime soon.
SANGLEY POINT — There will be no joint maritime patrols between Japan and Philippines happening anytime soon.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Monday they cannot hold a maritime patrol with Japan because there is no mechanism yet to allow such.
“There is none. We don’t have mechanism for joint patrol with Japanese naval forces in the West Philippine Sea but for freedom of navigation, I think anybody can pass through. Innocent passage is allowed in the international law,” he told reporters in a press briefing after the formal turnover of TC-90 patrol planes from Japan at Heracleo Alano naval base in Cavite City.
Japan and the Philippines, which Japanese State Minister of Defense Kenji Wakamiya described as one of its “closest friends,” share a rival claimant in China over the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
