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And under this new realism diplomacy, Japan is expected to double its defense spending as a share of its gross domestic product.

Let me just bring out the relevant article on this thing.

Because there was a very important meeting between President Marcos Jr. and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Alright, let's talk about this.

Okay, so Japan is a very important country to us in South Asia and the region.

And it's going to be even more important in the coming years.

Okay, going back to this.

So Japan actually provides more annual new big infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia than any other power.

In fact, way more than China.

By 2019, more than $300 billion of Japanese overseas infrastructure investment funds were committed to Southeast Asian countries.

And in some countries like Vietnam and Japan, it was not even close to China,

which had committed more than just $200 billion of infrastructure investment.

That's a huge gap between Japan and China alone.

We're not even talking about the West.

We're not talking about European countries, among others, who also have significant investments in this part of the world.

We're not going to even talk about South Korea and increasingly emerging powers like, let's say, India or Saudi Arabia or Turkey

who are also pivoting to this part of the world along with post-Brexit Britain.

Now, if you look at Japan,

it has more than matched China in terms of new infrastructure investment commitments.

Now, but what makes Japan even more attractive to us in Southeast Asia is the fact that Japan is not seen as a Western country, right?

It's still a nation country, last time I checked.

And the way Japan approaches in relationship nila with countries in the region is also extremely subtle, no?

So you never see Japanese leaders, whether it was Shinzo Abe who visited Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.

The first foreign leader, major foreign leader to visit the Philippines under the former controversial president.

You don't see Fumio Kishida.

You don't see Suga.

You don't see Junichiro Koizumi.

I can go on and on.

You don't see Taro Azar.

You don't see any of these guys openly criticizing any ASEAN country on human rights and democracy issues.

Now, obviously, that's sometimes very questionable, especially we're dealing with horrible situation, what's happening in Myanmar, the coups that we saw in Thailand, among others.

But at the same time, there is a value to that, right?

You want still a major country, not named China, to maintain that kind of friendly relationship with whoever is in power in Southeast Asia to just create some sort of balance, right?

The other thing, of course, with Japan is that it also doesn't force any ASEAN country to take its side when it comes to controversial geopolitical issues.

So, for instance, you don't have Japan telling ASEAN countries to join yung anti-Russia sanctions, right?

And sanctions on Russia are a very sensitive issue, especially for countries like Vietnam.

Dahil ang Vietnam po ay nagre-relive on Russia.

For their most advanced weapon systems.

In fact, a lot of weapon systems in Vietnam are in Cyrillic.

A lot of their top security people were trained in Moscow, in Russia.

Some go back to all the way the Soviet Union era.

And countries like Indonesia, for instance, and Malaysia have also tried to get high-level equipment, fighter jets, among others, if not submarines, from Russia.

Even the Philippines under Duterte was considering choppers, if not submarines, also from Russia.

Now, all of those deals have more or less evaporated because of the fear of Western sanctions.

Or secondary Western sanctions under the so-called CAATSA.

So, Japan has joined sanctions against Russia, albeit reluctantly.

But it's not a country that is like, you know, pressuring other ASEAN countries to tow the American or Western line.

You don't have that.

You also have a situation whereby, you know, many ASEAN countries, let's say Malaysia and Indonesia especially, you know, they have their concerns with China.

They have their concerns with China's maritime assertiveness.

They have their concerns with China bullying in the region.

And not to mention China.

They're treating horribly its own Uyghur or Uyghur ethnic Muslim minority.

China doesn't really have a good record in terms of dealing minorities.

We can have a long conversation about that.

And some are even accusing China of engaging in ethnic cleansing or something even worse when it comes to Xinjiang, right?

Having said that, when it comes to Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia,

they are more angry with the United States over American policies and American military interventions in the Middle East.

And, of course, as you see...

As you saw with the statement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim,

Malaysia and many ASEAN countries are extremely dissatisfied, no?

Due to the position of the United States on the ongoing Gaza conflict.

So when you put all of those things together, in ASEAN, we're really desperate for a kind of a third force or third power.

India might get there, but it's not there yet.

South Korea, it's a middle power, but I don't think it can be anything, any kind of a credible alternative.

But if you look at Japan, at least economically, it's a big, big force.

It's a force already in this part of the world.

And, in fact, scholars like Benedict Anderson would argue that over the past century,

Japan has been central to industrialization and development of manufacturing in entire Asia,

especially in Southeast Asia since 1970s and 80s.

Now, having said all of those things,

Japan is also increasingly becoming an important defense partner for Southeast Asian countries,

especially Yuma, my territorial or maritime disputes, the West Philippine Sea.

So, just this year, Japan launched...

In fact, this was during...

Prime Minister Kishida's visit to Manila.

We covered that.

I met a cabinet member, a senior cabinet member in Prime Minister Kishida's office.

You know, we discussed Japan's new official security assistance.

So, Japan is not only developing its own military capabilities, co-developing six-generation fighters with UK and Italy.

It's not only developing its own new long-range missile systems.

So, the so-called Japanese self-defense forces are increasingly developing...

Force projection capabilities, right?

And more than that,

Japan is helping Asian countries and South Pacific countries to develop also their own maritime security capabilities.

So, the Philippines, Malaysia, they're all expected to get radar systems worth millions of dollars,

more or less for free because this is under the official security assistance program,

the new OSA launched by Japan.

But, I would argue that as far as Japan's policy in ASEAN is concerned,

if there's one country that's closest to Japan,

at least in geopolitical terms, it's the Philippines.

At pagdating sa Pilipinas, we're not only looking at official security assistance,

we're not only looking at getting more multi-role and coast guard vessels from Japan.

Let me tell you, alright?

Let me tell you, guys.

Kung hindi dahil sa Japan, I doubt that the Philippine coast guard would have been as capable as it is today.

I mean, we have an absolutely amazing coast guard.

Some would argue that the Philippine coast guard now is the most developed or that the biggest right now in entire Southeast Asia.

It's also the most feisty, fighting back and pushing back against China's bullying.

And a big part of that is Japanese provision of multi-role, increasingly big vessels to the Philippines.

And we're gonna get even more of those.

Now, we're buying these ones. They're not completely, they're not free.

They're based on good loans and grants, but they're not free.

But, but you see,

the thing that really makes Philippine-Japan relationship special is that Japan is increasingly looking at

also signing its own visiting forces agreement with the Philippines.

Pag natuloy yan, then expect nyo na hindi lang magkakaroon ng mga balikatan exercises,

katulad ng meron tayo with America.

Hindi lang magkakaroon ng karate exercises, other exercises na meron tayo, let's say with Australia, for instance.

But you're gonna have specialized defense, bilateral, military,

drills between Philippines and Japanese maritime self-defense forces, bilaterally.

And we already saw a glimpse of that last year when, for the first time since the end of Second World War,

Japan deployed its air force, you know, for overseas drills with the Philippine air force.

Back in 2018, for the first time again in post-war history,

Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe back then, also sent an armored unit vehicle,

armored vehicle unit, right, sorry, to the balikatan exercises.

So you're gonna see more.

You're gonna see more and more of that.

And pagdating sa Pilipinas at Japan, of course, a lot of this has to do,

a lot of this has to do with not only in West Philippines the disputes,

of course China is very, I'm sorry, Japan is very worried about what's happening in the West Philippines.

Because what happens in the West Philippines will inevitably also impact not only Japan's trade linkages in the region,

but also Japan's claims in East China Sea, Japan's situation in Okinawa.

But inevitably it has one thing or two to do also with the situation in Taiwan.

Because kung titignan niyo yung map, right, Taiwan is smack right in the middle of the Philippines and Japan.

And the southernmost islands of Japan or military bases of Japan to be even more specific,

and the northernmost military bases of Philippines, for instance in Mavulis,

they're almost equidistant to the Taiwanese shores, right?

So any future plans to avoid invasion of Taiwan will inevitably require a certain degree of coordination.

Between the Philippines and Japan.

And at the same time with the United States.

So in fact, ang tinitignan ngayon ng Japan is the development of what I call JAFUS,

Japan-Philippine-US Trilateral Alliance or some sort of trilateral security cooperation,

so that they can provide this kind of a triangular, triangular deterrence framework around Taiwan.

Paring China yung magdadalong isip bago sumugod sa Taiwan.

Because, you know, I don't know about some folks out there,

but, you know, the reason why Ukraine was in,

invaded by Russia, among others, is because Ukraine was weak.

Because Ukraine had no security alliance with any country.

In fact, Ukraine became a neutral country and gave up its nuclear weapons, right?

You check the, for instance, the Budapest Agreement after the end of Cold War.

So it was extremely vulnerable, that's why Russia moved in.

Had Ukraine joined NATO 10, 15, 20 years ago,

then it would have been as safe as many far smaller and more vulnerable Baltic countries.

I've been to some of them, you see Estonia, for instance,

which are extremely vulnerable.

They're really close to St. Petersburg.

They could be invaded by Russia anytime.

They're so small and vulnerable.

But Russia is not going to dare to attack them at this anytime soon

because they fall under NATO's collective security framework.

Now, Ukraine had no security alliance,

so there was a very weak deterrence to Putin.

So once Putin went cuckoo, right?

He just went for it.

But even, no matter how cuckoo Putin has turned throughout the pandemic period

with all this isolation and paranoia and KGB, whatever,

the reality is that,

you know, even Putin would have most likely been deterred from a full invasion of Ukraine

had Ukraine had anything close to what the Philippines or Japan have with the United States.

Now, Taiwan, technically speaking, is no longer a U.S. treaty ally

since the adoption of one-China policy

and the Carter administration's, you know, full, essentially, normalization of ties with China,

People's Republic of China, at the expense of the Republic of China in the 70s.

But the reality is that there's a de facto alliance between Philippines—

sorry, between the United States and Taiwan,

and there's a real alliance with both Philippines and Japan

just to the north and south of Taiwan.

So very important of Philippines to Japan.

Now, my hope is, and this is what I've been pushing for,

is that my hope is the Philippines is not just a military ally to Japan

or an emerging military ally.

I hope that the Philippines will also leverage this increasing geopolitical importance

to get the most possible economic investments,

high-quality economic investments.

I call it the Taiwan plus one strategy.

The other things in Taiwan plus one strategy that we want to achieve

is semiconductor investments in Taiwan.

Some of the semiconductor production moves to the Philippines.

Some of the productions that, you know, Japan was envisioning in Taiwan,

perhaps they could also move it to the Philippines.

The same for the United States.

Taiwan itself can push some of its investment to the Philippines.

Not to mention some of the investment pushes that the West and Japan have in Southeast Asia.

A lot of that is going to Thailand.

A lot of that is going to Vietnam.

More and more is going to Indonesia.

Not to mention Malaysia.

Malaysia has the Silicon Valley of Asia.

You want some of that to come into the Philippines

and more of that coming to the Philippines.

That's why you need a leader.

You need a president in the Philippines who can play,

you know, juggle both the geopolitical game and also the geoeconomic game.

So pag-usapan natin yan in the coming years.

So the stakes are very high.

We know that when Japan invests,

they really create jobs for locals.

High-quality jobs, well-paying jobs.

Anyone who's worked for a Japanese company,

a multinational Japanese company knows.

You know, you'd rather work for a Japanese company

than, I don't know, a Chinese company for that matter.

When Chinese come and invest in infrastructure of a country,

they're going to bring their own workers,

their own contractors,

their own technology,

their own engineers,

their own bulldozers.

There's going to be very minimal participation by the host country.

Even when they give so-called aid and all of that.

Sila sila rin na magbibuild yan.

So they're actually just creating jobs for themselves.

And they're giving experience and profile

to their own national champions and infrastructure companies.

That's not the case with Japan.

When Japan builds you highways and bridges,

it doesn't bring its own workers and all of that.

And more importantly also,

there's always some element of technology cooperation

and even technology transfer for that matter.

So these are the things that are very important to keep in mind

when you look at the Philippine-Japan relationship.

This is a very, very important relationship

that we'll be continuing to look at for the coming days.

So don't worry about that, guys.

Now, guys.

Now, eto na.

Let's move na.

Bardagulan sa loob ng Pilipinas.

Ako po. Ako po. Okay.

So may balitan nung isang araw na ang mga anchors ng SMNI ay ano na,

napalaya.

Pinalaya na pala na hindi na daw sila kailangan nandyan sa kongreso.

Ang hirap kasi magtiwala.

Dahil mga new stats hindi pala confirmed.

Pero tingnan natin dito kung...

So, I don't know.