Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday he plans to deliver a speech at the Congress of the Philippines during his visit to the Southeast Asian country starting Friday.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to address the Philippine Congress.

“I will deliver a policy speech at the Philippine Congress and convey the basic policy of our country’s next-generation diplomacy toward Southeast Asia,” Kishida said at an executive meeting of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The prime minister said that he will also visit Malaysia.

The move comes ahead of a special summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Tokyo in December and amid rising tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

In the upcoming speech, Kishida is expected to underline the need for security cooperation between Japan and the Philippines and call for cooperation among the two countries plus the United States to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Kishida will also have talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and they are expected to confirm that their countries will start negotiations to conclude a bilateral reciprocal access agreement to allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Philippine military to visit each other’s country smoothly for joint exercises or disaster relief.

Japan currently has such agreements with Australia and Britain.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss projects under Japan’s newly established official security assistance program. The Philippines is one of the four recipients of the assistance this fiscal year.

Kishida is also likely to discuss specific assistance measures with his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim.

JIJI Press