The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between the Philippines and Japan which is to be signed Monday will help the country cope with maritime tensions in the West Philippine Sea, a defense analyst said Sunday.

Under the RAA, Japanese troops will be allowed to go to the Philippines to conduct military exercises with Filipino soldiers and Filipino forces can also go to Japan to join drills with Japanese soldiers.

In an interview with dzBB, Renato De Castro, a defense analyst and professor at the Department of International Studies of De La Salle University, said that when the RAA gets signed, the Philippines will be able to have another defense ally in case China causes another conflict.

“We will have two security partners: Australia and Japan. And of course, we have one treaty ally, America. So we should not be intimidated by the size and determination of China,” De Castro said.

He said the purpose of the Reciprocal Access Agreement is when if they send their soldiers here, ''this is not occupation force.'' ''We invited them here. This is not a violation of our sovereignty,'' he said.

De Castro said ''there will be large scale joint exercises.''

“We should exercise our statecraft in how we deal with international relations, international politics and also exercise in terms of relying on what we call security partnerships and alliance with the United States and like-minded countries,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS