By Robina Asido

The Philippines, Japan and the United States are planning  more trilateral naval activities and exercises in the Indo-Pacific Region as their leaders announced the creation of a maritime trilateral dialogue between the three countries during the summit in Washington on Thursday.

A joint vision statement noted that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.and US President Joe Biden “resolve to advance trilateral defense cooperation, including through combined naval training and exercises between our three countries and additional partners, such as the recently concluded Maritime Cooperative Activity.”

It also mentioned that within the next year, the coast guards of the three countries “also plan to conduct an at-sea trilateral exercise and other maritime activities in the Indo-Pacific to improve interoperability and advance maritime security and safety”.

They also “announce the establishment of a trilateral maritime dialogue to enhance coordination and collective responses to promote maritime cooperation.”

“Our three nations pledge to strengthen our extensive coordination to promote maritime domain awareness and deepen cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” the statement said.

“We emphasize our commitment to advancing multilateral maritime domain awareness cooperation through such venues as the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA),” it added.

It stated that the three leaders will also launch humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) exercises to ensure that the three countries can work together in responding to calamities.

“We are also launching a Japan-Philippines-U.S. humanitarian assistance and disaster response exercise, which could be integrated into trilateral or multilateral activities, including Balikatan 2025, to ensure our countries are ready and able to work together seamlessly and expeditiously in response to any crisis or contingency,” it stated.

As the three leaders expressed serious concerns about the dangerous, aggressive and illegal behavior and activities of People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) both in the East and South China Sea, they also expressed concern on the illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the region.

“We are concerned about illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. We support the ability of Filipino and Japanese fisherfolk to pursue their traditional livelihoods,” it stated.

“To build regional capacity and address threats posed by transnational crime, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and other maritime challenges, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States plan to expand our efforts to provide maritime law enforcement training and support to partner countries in the region,” it added. DMS