{"id":53103,"date":"2015-06-25T17:31:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T09:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=53103"},"modified":"2015-06-25T17:31:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T09:31:18","slug":"gazmin-ph-japan-vfa-will-take-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/25\/gazmin-ph-japan-vfa-will-take-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Gazmin: PH, Japan VFA will take time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Defense<\/a>
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin announced the \u2018increasing convergence\u2019 of the Philippines and Japan with the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement is to start discussions and it will be about transfer of equipment and technology,\u201d Gazmin said in a roundtable meeting.<\/p>\n

He noted, however, that the VFA will take time, mentioning that the Philippines and Australia\u2019s defense alliance was completed in seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will not be completed under President Aquino\u2019s administration,\u201d Gazmin said, adding that rushing the agreement may repeat the flaws in the Philippines and United State\u2019s VFA which granted the US sole jurisdiction over its troops during training here.<\/p>\n

The Philippines and Japan\u2019s VFA had been considered during President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III\u2019s state visit to Japan this month.<\/p>\n

Prior the consideration of a military agreement, the Philippine and Japanese forces had already been working together on air and naval drills. These joint drills, however, were deemed unconstitutional because of the absence of a Senate-ratified treaty.<\/p>\n

As of now, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had already started preliminary talks with Japan\u2019s officials regarding the VFA. After the talks, the agreement will then go through constitutional processes.<\/p>\n

With China\u2019s aggressive reclamation activities in the disputed Spratly Islands, Gazmin clarified that the Philippines and Japans\u2019 initiative to deepen bilateral relationship was not directed at any country but was acted upon the interest of exploring ways to strengthen both country\u2019s defenses.<\/p>\n

Gazmin admitted, however, that the Philippines and Japan were indeed weary over a \u2018common neighbor.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe maritime challenges both our countries face place both of us almost in the same boat, with a common neighbor causing alarm and concern for both of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin announced the \u2018increasing convergence\u2019 of the Philippines and Japan with the Visiting Forces Agreement …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":53105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-53103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}