Marcos says visiting forces deal with Japan ‘very close’ to completion

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. GABRIEL P. LALU/INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — The visiting forces deal between the Philippines and Japan is expected to be completed “very soon,” according to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Marcos also noted that he also tackled the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with  Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during the trilateral summit between the Philippines, Japan and the United States held in Washington.

“I think we’re very close to completion on that,” Marcos said of the RAA during the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum held in Manila Hotel.

READ: Zubiri confident Senate will ratify reciprocal access agreement with Japan

READ: What to expect from Philippines, US, Japan’s first trilateral summit

“There aren’t really 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,” he added.

The RAA enables a mechanism for shared military training and operations and larger joint exercises between two countries.

To date, the Philippines has an existing visiting forces agreement with the United States and status of visiting forces agreement with Australia.

The upper chamber needs to ratify the treaty, and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed confidence that the majority of the upper chamber would favor the RAA.

With 24 members in the Senate, the RAA at least needs 16 affirmative votes, as the 1987 Constitution provides that no treaty will be valid or deemed effective “unless concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.”