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Japan hopes to expand overseas security aid scheme in Asean, says senior official
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This is a “sea change” for Japan, which has long had a self-imposed ban on military equipment exports given its wartime history.
PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO – The Philippines is set to be a beneficiary of Japan’s official security assistance (OSA) scheme, in which Tokyo donates military equipment to friendly armed forces in developing countries, for the third straight year in 2025, The Straits Times has learnt.
This underscores deepening security ties between the two American security allies, who are alarmed by an increasingly assertive China in regional waters. Their multidimensional defence partnership includes a reciprocal access agreement – Japan’s first in Asia – in 2024 to allow military deployment on each other’s soil.
