(Reuters) — Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte sat down for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday (September 6) on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Laos, with both sides agreeing to strengthen cooperation to ensure a peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute.
With both countries locked in territorial disputes with China, Abe agreed during the bilateral meeting to provide two large-sized patrol ships and lend up to five used surveillance aircraft to the Philippines, a Japanese government spokesman said.
Japan’s ties with China has been marred by a long-running territorial spat over a group of small islets in the East China Sea. Japan has already agreed to provide 10 smaller-sized patrol ships to the Philippines.
Duterte also met his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Tuesday for a bilateral meeting. Vietnam is one of the most vocal claimants of territory in the waterway.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
An arbitration court in The Hague in July invalidated China’s claims to the waterway after a case was brought by the Philippines, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognize.
