The Philippines will buy five patrol vessels from Japan amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.
The deal will be financed with a Japanese loan worth about 23.9 billion pesos ($415 million) and was signed by Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Japanese Ambassador Endo Kazuya, the Philippine Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday on his website.
“This occasion not only marks the deepening of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Japan, but also underlines our continued commitment to enhance our maritime security capabilities for the benefit of our nation and the broader maritime community,” Manalo said.
The Philippines is strengthening its maritime resources as tensions with China escalate over the South China Sea. Japan, along with Australia and the United States, in April reaffirmed their position that a 2016 South China Sea Arbitration Tribunal ruling favoring the Philippines over China in their maritime dispute was considered final and legally binding.
Under the loan program, Japan previously agreed to provide the Southeast Asian country with ten 44-meter patrol ships in 2013 and two 97-meter ships in 2016.
Deliveries of the just announced five ships are expected to take place between 2027 and 2028.
Last December, the Philippine Coast Guard said it would build a facility in Subic Bay on Luzon Island for use by the purchased large patrol vessels.
