China Cornered; Xi's Worst Nightmare? Two Asian Rivals Seal Explosive Military Deal
New Delhi: Japan has formally ratified the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with the Philippines after months of speculation and delays. Though Manila approved the pact nearly a year ago, Tokyo's green light came only recently. It marks a significant moment in Asia's shifting strategic landscape.
The final push came after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's high-profile visit to the Philippines that showcased how seriously both countries are taking China's increasing aggression.
Under the agreement, Japanese and Filipino forces will now be able to train and operate on each other's territories. This includes live-fire military drills and joint exercises, an unprecedented move considering Japan's post-WWII military restrictions.
Analysts call it a strategic masterstroke against China, which has ongoing maritime disputes with both nations over contested islands in the East and South China Seas.
Manila had already signalled its commitment back in 2024. In a ceremony held in July that year, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa formally signed the deal. Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attended the event, reinforcing the high level of political and military will behind the pact.
Philippine Ambassador to Japan, Mylene Garcia-Albano, did not hold back. In a statement on Friday, she welcomed the Japanese upper house's approval of the RAA and declared it a 'major milestone' that now completes the legislative process in Tokyo.
According to her, this agreement will simplify joint training and disaster relief deployments and will boost military cooperation between the two nations.
This deal is considered to be groundbreaking. It marks the first time since World War II that Japanese troops will return to Philippine soil, which they once occupied during wartime. Until now, Japan had signed similar agreements only with allies like Australia and the United Kingdom. With this step, it boldly enters the Asian military partnership arena.
An Anti-China Alliance in the Making?
Japan and the Philippines are both close allies of the United States, and this agreement comes amid growing concern over China's rising belligerence in the region. From the East China Sea to the South China Sea, China has repeatedly flexed its military muscles, claimed territory and tested regional limits. But this new axis between Tokyo and Manila could be the most serious check on Beijing's power yet.
Xi Jinping's ambitions for regional hegemony may have just hit a serious roadblock.
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Hindustan Times
5 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
When India was turned into a vast prison house
On the 50th anniversary of its promulgation, falling on June 25, the horrors of the national Emergency (1975-1977) will be recalled by just about everyone as the darkest period in post-Independence India. The Emergency regime's abuse of power, its brutal suppression of democratic opposition and muzzling of free thought and expression will be excavated from the past, roundly and rightly rebuked. The ruling establishment will cite the Emergency's excesses, the Indian National Congress will not deny the venality of those excesses. Indeed, it cannot. But it will also respond by asking the government, 'What about yours?' In the slanging match that might ensue, the lessons that need to be learnt from its horrors may well get lost. Jayaprakash Narayan, as he was being taken to jail, is said to have remarked vinasha kaale viparita buddhi. (HT Archive) For me, the horror of all the horrors of the Emergency was that India had become a vast prison house. Fear gripped the political class, the intelligentsia, the business community, and the media. During the Emergency, it has been estimated that 34,988 people were arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and 75,818 people were arrested under the Defence of India Act and Rules. As a 30-year-old junior officer in the Tamil Nadu cadre of the IAS, I felt like I was suddenly imprisoned myself, unable to speak my mind without looking over my shoulders, for walls had overnight acquired ears, corridors eyes. Newspapers were under the strictest censorship, and the radio relayed only government-sponsored news. Word came through, nonetheless, of Jayaprakash Narayan, the country's tallest leader, having been woken up at three in the morning and taken to jail, and his saying, as he was being moved, vinasha kaale vipareeta buddhi (as perdition nears, the ruler loses his mind). 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I came to see the inside of a jail only years later when, working in West Bengal, I did what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked all governors to do. I visited correctional homes, as jails were by then called. In one, a bearded young man came up to me and said in Hindustani: 'Huzoor, I am a Pakistani. I wanted to visit Ajmer Sharif for a minnat (vow). I got a visa and came. But my mistake was I came alone. I was detained on the suspicion of being a terrorist. I want to make no request or complaint to you. I only want to thank you. By arresting me and putting me in this jail, India has done me a favour. I have found a copy of the Holy Quran in the library here and have read it for the first time from beginning to end…' I did not know what to say to him. Was he being ironic, sarcastic, genuinely appreciative? In any case, he was being totally intellectual. In another correctional home, as I was leaving, completely torn by the spectacle of elderly women sentenced for dowry killings, and by a section cruelly called pagal ward (ward of the mad), I was accosted by a young Bengali inmate. 'Saer,' he said breathlessly, in Bangla, 'Our library here… it needs a regular supply of good new books.' He could have been a final year student in any of our universities. In yet another, the inmates made a plain request: 'Can we have, just for the day, Sir, a TV installed to enable us to watch the Wimbledon Open?' This was done, to the great delight of the set there that might have included murderers, rapists, thieves. But all of them were for that day, tennis fans no different from other free followers of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. We who are 'out' do not know the story of those who are 'in'. India is under no Emergency today. But is the horror of Emergency horrors, the jail, call it by whatever name, not a grim reality? Are there no political detenus in India today? Is the threat of imprisonment not active in our political economy? The 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the Emergency should respect history, not serve politics. The Congress has a truly golden opportunity to offer an unequivocal and unstinting apology for each and every transgression committed in the course of that Emergency, across the gamut of human rights, political norms, legal nostrums. Would it be too much to expect the Congress president to call on arguably the seniormost living ex-prisoner of the Emergency era, Advaniji and offer him a personal apology? He should do this not as the president of the party that was in power during the Emergency, but the party that led India to freedom. And the government has a golden opportunity to do something beyond recalling the Emergency's horrors. What may that be? It can announce a chapter-turn in India's penological history by releasing all so-called political detenus, and by saying detaining persons for their political views, when not accompanied by incitement to violence, or hatred, will henceforth not happen. More, it can alter for all time, our prison profile, turning our jails into serious centres for state-of-the-art correctional services across physical and mental counselling, personality therapy, re-orientation, where there is no question of custodial torture, where prisoner-on-prisoner violence and perversions are erased, where in-jail crimes with outside collaboration, especially in drugs-abuse, are a thing of the past. Above all, it can put life into the amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which by, Section 436A (new Section 479 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) allowing for the release of undertrial prisoners on bail after they have served half of the maximum sentence prescribed for their alleged offence, provided it is not a capital offence (punishable by death or life imprisonment). Seventy-five percent of the inmates of our scandalously overcrowded correctional homes are undertrials, most of whom are very likely innocent. The practice of releasing prisoners at anniversaries is an old and respected tradition across the world. The government of India will show by tangible deed its abhorrence of the imprisoning spree that marked the Emergency if it startles the nation by this radical reform. Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a student of modern Indian history and the author of The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India. The views expressed are personal.
Mint
10 hours ago
- Mint
China, Philippines Report Encounter in South China Sea
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Time of India
11 hours ago
- Time of India
Japan scraps US meeting after Washington demands more defense spending: FT reports
Japan called off a key meeting with the United States. This followed a demand from the Trump administration. The US wanted Japan to significantly increase its defense spending. The request was higher than previous expectations. This development occurred before crucial upper house elections in Japan. It also precedes a NATO meeting where similar spending demands are anticipated from European allies. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Japan has canceled an annual high-level meeting with key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense , the Financial Times reported on of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Washington on July 1 for the yearly 2+2 security Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product, higher than an earlier request of 3%, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday that President Donald Trump 's administration was demanding that its Asian allies, including Japan, spend 5% of GDP on defense.A Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Saturday that Japan and the U.S. have never discussed 3.5% or 5% targets for defense spending. The official also said he had no information about the FT is generally difficult to coordinate such four-way meetings, especially as Hegseth is busy with the crisis in the Middle East, he said.A U.S. official who asked not to be identified told Reuters that Japan had "postponed" the talks in a decision made several weeks ago. The official did not cite a reason. A non-government source familiar with the issue said he had also heard Japan had pulled out of the meeting but not the reason for it doing Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she had no comment on the FT report when asked about it at a regular briefing. The Pentagon also had no immediate embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The nation's defense ministry and the Prime Minister's Office did not answer phone calls seeking comment outside business hours on FT said the higher spending demand was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the third-most senior Pentagon official, who has also recently upset another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific by launching a review of a project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered March, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that other nations do not decide Japan's defense budget, after Colby called for Tokyo to spend more to counter China in his nomination hearing to be under secretary of defense for and other U.S. allies have been engaged in difficult trade talks with the United States over President Trump's worldwide tariff FT said the decision to cancel the July 1 meeting was also related to Japan's July 20 upper house elections, expected to be a major test for Ishiba's minority coalition move on the 2+2 comes ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in Europe next week, at which Trump is expected to press his demand that European allies boost their defense spending to 5% of GDP.
