What came out of Duterte’s three-day state visit to Japan?

MANILA, Philippines - President Rodrigo Duterte undertook an official visit to Japan from October 25 to 27 following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s invitation.

What came out of Duterte’s three-day state visit to Japan?
Photo Credit: Facebook/Christopher Go
The three-day state visit served as an important milestone in the countries’ bilateral relationship for the past 60 years.

Providing Assistance to PH

In order to improve the country’s maritime safety capability, the Philippines has secured a P6.8 billion loan from the government of Japan as part of Tokyo’s Official Development Assistance (ODA).The loan, which has an interest rate of between 0.01% and 0.10%, will cover for the acquisition of two large-vale patrol vessels for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

To enhance security and defense cooperation between two countries, the two leaders also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Implementation and Letter of Arrangement for the transfer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)'s training aircraft TC-90s.

During the meeting, the Japanese government also expressed its intention to provide high-speed boats and other equipment to improve the country’s anti-terrorism capabilities.

Supporting Japan on South China Sea Dispute

Despite his high profile visit to China last week, Duterte assured Japan that the country will stand on Japan’s side over the South China Sea dispute. Japan has a dispute with China over small isles in the East China Sea.

"You know I went to China for a visit. And I would like to assure you that all there was, was economics. We did not talk about arms. We avoided talking about alliances,” Duterte told businessmen in Japan.

200K New Jobs for Filipinos

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez revealed that at least 200,000 new jobs will be offered to Filipinos from multi-billion dollar deals with Japanese companies.

With an investment value of about $1.5 billion, the projects would be in the automotive, biomass fuel, ship building, optical image stabilisers, electric vehicles, agriculture, renewable energy and energy management system industries.

Japan remains to be the country’s largest trading partner with more than $18 billion in total trade.

Visit this link for the joint statement of the Philippines and Japan during Duterte’s state visit.

--Mini, The Summit Express



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