By Robina Asido

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. expressed hope that the reciprocal access agreement (RAA) with Japan will be signed during the 2+2 defense and foreign ministers meeting on July 8.

"We are hoping that during that meeting the RAA or the reciprocal access agreement will be signed during that meeting," he said during the press conference in Camp Aguinaldo on Thursday.

Brawner admitted that he is not aware of the current status of the negotiations and process for the RAA but he explained its importance in the conduct of military training between Philippines and Japanese forces.

"RAA is important because it will allow Japanese forces, Japanese troops to come into our country to conduct training together with us, it will also allow our troops to come to Japan to train with them," he said.

"While we do not yet have the RAA we only conduct subject matter expert exchanges where they discuss humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations... but with the RAA it will allow us to conduct more than just HADR operations but actual military operations," he added.

AFP spokesperson Col Francel Margareth Padilla said with the RAA, Philippines and Japanese forces can replicate bilateral drills that the armed forces have with the United States military.

"More than HADR, so it will more of exercises geared towards military operations so what we do in Salaknib and Balikatan those can be replicated and with balikatan exercises, this recent, it was judged, it was dubbed as one of the biggest with the active participation from Australia and the French Navy," she said.

"We encourage more like minded nations to be joining us in these exercises because with this we are trying to see how we integrate and interoperate with one another in any scenario so if Japan will have an active participation other than being an observer then we welcome that," she added. DMS