Philippines, Japan to hold security talks next month

MANILA, Philippines — Japan and the Philippines are to hold high-level defense and security talks next month, the foreign department said Friday, as the two countries seek to boost ties in the face of China's growing regional pressure.

Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa will discuss "bilateral and defense and security issues affecting the region" at the July 8 Manila meeting, a department statement said.

The talks follow escalating confrontations at sea between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to nearly all of the South China Sea.

Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over Japan-controlled disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Japan, which occupied the Philippines in World War II, is negotiating a defense pact with Manila that would allow the countries to deploy troops on each other's territory.

Tokyo is also helping to modernize the fleet of the Philippine Coast Guard, a key entity in Manila's efforts to assert its sovereign rights over the South China Sea.

Tokyo's maritime self-defense force held joint naval and air drills with the United States, Australia and the Philippines in the strategic waterway in April.

The drills aimed to demonstrate what they said was their "collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific".