Marcos: PH-Japan reciprocal access agreement nearly done

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday said that the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between the Philippines and Japan is nearing its completion.

The president thus said days after he met with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington DC in a bilateral meeting and in a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden.

“That will be coming soon. We spoke about it again with Prime Minister Kishida when I was in Washington,” Marcos said at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines’ 50th Anniversary Presidential Forum.

“There aren’t any real conflicts in principle. It’s just a question of getting the language down and defining precisely how it’s going to work— the logistical systems and how that’s going to work— but it should not take very much longer. I think we’re very close to completion on that,” he added.

Amid the issue of reparation to comfort women during World War II, Marcos said he “cannot see” how the RAA “will bleed into that.”

“I think it’s quite distinct and discrete in its effect,” Marcos said.

The president likewise assured that the RAA is “not the same” as the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States when asked about the custody of erring Japanese servicemen on Philippine soil.

“I think— it’s not similar. We’ve had problems with that with the Americans— some American forces as we all know but it’s very, very different from what the Reciprocal Agreement will be with the Japanese. It’s not going to be as if it’s their base and the people there— their seamen will come down and will go into the city. I don’t think that’s part of the agreement,” he said.

The negotiations on the RAA started in November 2023.

Marcos during Kishida’s visit to Malacañang adverted to the benefits of the deal in “maintaining peace and stability in our region.” —NB, GMA Integrated News