We, the leaders of Japan, the Philippines, and the United States, met today for
the first Summit between our three countries. As three Indo-Pacific maritime
democracies, our nations and the half-billion people we collectively represent
are bound together by historical ties of friendship, robust and growing
economic relations, and a proud and resolute commitment to our shared
fundamental values of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, and the
rule of law. We gather today in Washington as equal partners and trusted
friends, united by the vision we share of a free and open Indo-Pacific and
international order based on international law—a vision we pledge to advance
together for decades to come. We believe, fundamentally, that by working
together, we can advance the security and prosperity of our own nations, the
Indo-Pacific region, and the world.
Our historic Summit today is the culmination of
decades of partnership and builds on the recent momentum of our governments’
trilateral efforts. In June 2023, our national security advisors met in Tokyo,
and again virtually in December 2023, to establish a common framework for
trilateral cooperation among our nations. In July and September 2023, our
foreign ministers met to advance our shared agenda on economic security,
development, humanitarian assistance, maritime security, and defense. In
September 2023, Prime Minister Kishida, President Marcos, and Vice President
Harris met to deepen our trilateral cooperation. Following today’s Summit, we
intend to further expand trilateral engagements across our governments and to
intensify our cooperative efforts across sectors.
Our three nations share a firm commitment to a
free and open Indo-Pacific that is connected, prosperous, secure, inclusive,
and resilient. We welcome coordination and cooperation with a wide range of
partners who share these goals. In that spirit, we affirm our unwavering
support for ASEAN centrality and unity, and the ASEAN Outlook on the
Indo-Pacific. We underscore our support for Pacific Island countries and intend
to transparently and effectively work in partnership with the Pacific Islands
Forum (PIF) to support the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
Additionally, we welcome efforts to support a peaceful and stable, rules-based
Indo-Pacific region, including from the Quad, AUKUS, and the
U.S.-Japan-Republic of Korea trilateral framework.
Promoting Inclusive Economic Growth and
Economic Resilience
Our three nations resolve to promote enduring, inclusive
economic growth and resilience in our countries and the broader Indo-Pacific.
We are pursuing economic projects that advance our shared objectives: promoting
broad-based and sustainable economic growth, and investing in resilient,
reliable, and diversified supply chains. We support the continued progress of
the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) to advance
resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and
competitiveness for our economies and the broader region. President Marcos
welcomes President Biden’s recent Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to
the Philippines and the announcement of more than $1 billion in U.S. private
sector investments that help promote the Philippines’ innovation economy, clean
energy transition, and supply chain resilience, as well as the continued U.S.
commitment to mobilizing private sector investment in the Philippines.
President Marcos appreciates Japan’s contribution of Official Development
Assistance and private sector investment in its 2022-2023 fiscal year, which
exceeded the pledge of JPY 600 billion made in the 2023 Japan-Philippines Joint
Statement. We welcome the first trilateral commerce and industry ministers’
meeting that took place earlier today to advance our shared agenda. Our three
nations commit to facilitating the steady implementation of ongoing and future
economic cooperation projects toward the Philippines’ attainment of upper
middle income country status and beyond.
We express concern over and strongly oppose
economic coercion, stress the importance of a rules-based economic order, and
underscore the need for close coordination in dealing with economic coercion.
Announcing the Luzon Corridor
Our three nations are proud to partner on the
first Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment corridor in the
Indo-Pacific. Today we are launching the Luzon Economic Corridor, which will
support connectivity between Subic Bay, Clark, Manila, and Batangas in the
Philippines. Through this corridor, part of the Partnership for Global
Infrastructure and Investment-IPEF Accelerator, Japan, the Philippines, and the
United States commit to accelerating coordinated investments in high-impact
infrastructure projects, including rail; ports modernization; clean energy and
semiconductor supply chains and deployments; agribusiness; and civilian port
upgrades at Subic Bay. Japan has long been supporting connectivity in this
area, including rails and roads, through Japan International Cooperation
Agency. We plan to work with multilateral organizations and the private sector
to attract quality, transformative investments. Together we intend to hold a
trilateral event promoting investment in the Luzon Corridor on the margins of
the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Manila in May—the premier U.S. commercial
event in the region. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
also intends to open a regional office in the Philippines to facilitate further
investments across the Philippines. The Luzon Corridor is a demonstration of
our enhanced economic cooperation, focused on delivering tangible investments
across multiple sectors. Japan, the Philippines, and the United States are also
partnering to expand cooperation and investments in other areas of the
Philippines.
Developing Critical and Emerging Technologies
We commit to harnessing the talents and
ingenuity of our citizens to seize cutting-edge technological opportunities.
The United States, subject to Congressional notification, and Japan, with
support from Japanese industry, intend to provide at least $8 million for Open
Radio Access Network (RAN) field trials and the Asia Open RAN Academy based in
Manila, to enable future commercial deployment and an open, interoperable,
secure, reliable, and trusted information communications technology ecosystem
in the Philippines. This builds on prior U.S. and Japanese investment of over
$9 million for these projects in the Philippines. The government of Japan is
also seriously considering further investments for the potential commercial
deployment of Open RAN technology in the Philippines, including from the Global
South Future-Oriented Co-Creation Project. The United States and Japan welcome
the Philippines’ plan to pilot Open RAN in its national broadband program and
free Wi-Fi project. The United States and Japan commend the Philippines’
commitment to develop a national Open RAN policy framework, reaffirming the
Philippines’ endorsement of open, interoperable, and trusted
architectures. This year, our three countries look forward to holding the
first trilateral Cyber and Digital Dialogue to explore additional cooperation
opportunities.
We intend to pursue a new semiconductor
workforce development initiative, through which students from the Philippines
will receive world-class training at leading American and Japanese
universities, to help secure our nations’ semiconductor supply chains. This
initiative complements the expansion of semiconductor investments in the Philippines
that would strengthen supply chain resiliency among our three nations.
Furthermore, through the CHIPS and Science Act’s International Technology
Security and Innovation Fund, the United States and the Philippines plan to
coordinate our efforts to develop and expand the Philippine semiconductor
workforce to strengthen the global supply chain.
Advancing Climate Partnership and Clean
Energy Supply Chains
Recognizing the existential threat of the
climate crisis, we affirm our commitment to take urgent action this decade to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with a 1.5 degrees Celsius warming
limit and accelerate efforts to build clean energy economies, while noting
different national circumstances. Our three nations seek to expand
trilateral cooperation in the Philippines on the deployment of clean energy
technologies, including renewable energy projects such as solar and wind, to
support energy requirements in the Philippines and help ensure a just energy
transition. We also welcome the first Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on
March 21, where participants from more than 35 countries, including Japan, the
Philippines, and the United States, recognized nuclear energy as an important
component of a multifaceted and inclusive clean energy transition. Recognizing
the Philippines’ request for further training and capacity building for
scientists, engineers, and relevant personnel and policy-makers, our three
nations seek to expand our partnership on safe and secure civil-nuclear
capacity building. Under the Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of
Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program, the United States and Japan
plan to co-host a nuclear energy study tour in Japan for nuclear experts and
policy decision-makers from the Philippines and other FIRST partner countries.
We also plan to deepen trilateral cooperation on civilian nuclear workforce
development through a trilateral dialogue this year, to advance the
Philippines’ civil nuclear energy program.
Japan, the Philippines, and the United States
are working together to expand cooperation for the transition to clean energy
and create high-standard, clean energy supply chain jobs across our three
nations through the mutually beneficial development of resources in clear,
transparent, and fair market competition with strong protections for labor
rights and the environment. Japan, the Philippines, and the United States
support critical minerals industries in all of our countries as a way to
promote resilient and reliable global supply chains for critical minerals. We
share the goal of producing and supplying battery materials and batteries for
electric vehicles and energy storage systems for the global marketplace. The
United States, under the International Visitor Leadership Program, plans to
manage a clean energy supply chain training program for select participants
from Japan and the Philippines. In addition, the United States and Japan look
forward to the Philippines being a founding member of the Minerals Security
Partnership Forum, which signifies an important step towards securing and
diversifying our collective clean energy supply chains.
Partnering for Peace and Security
Today, President Biden reaffirms the ironclad
U.S. alliance commitments to both Japan and the Philippines, which have helped
safeguard peace and security in the Indo-Pacific for decades. We underscore our
nations’ unwavering commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight, and the
importance of respecting the sovereign rights of states within their exclusive
economic zones consistent with international law, as reflected in the 1982
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
We express our serious concerns about the
People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) dangerous and aggressive behavior in the
South China Sea. We are also concerned by the militarization of reclaimed
features and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea. We steadfastly
oppose the dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia
vessels in the South China Sea, as well as efforts to disrupt other countries’
offshore resource exploitation. We reiterate serious concern over the PRC’s
repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of
navigation and the disruption of supply lines to Second Thomas Shoal, which
constitute dangerous and destabilizing conduct. The final and legally binding
July 12, 2016 Arbitral Tribunal determined that this feature lies within the
Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, and we call on the PRC to abide by the
ruling.
We express our serious concerns regarding the
situation in the East China Sea, and reiterate our strong opposition to any
attempts by the PRC to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion
in the East China Sea, including through actions that seek to undermine Japan’s
longstanding and peaceful administration of the Senkaku Islands.
We affirm the importance of peace and stability
across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and
prosperity, recognize that there is no change in our basic positions on Taiwan,
and call for a peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.
We welcome recent cooperation among our three
nations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific and commit to deepening that
cooperation. The U.S. and Japan continue to support Philippine Coast Guard
capacity building, including through Japan’s recent provision of twelve Coast
Guard vessels and plans to provide five additional vessels to the Philippines.
Following the first-ever joint exercise between our coast guards in 2023,
the United States looks forward to welcoming Philippine and Japan Coast Guard
members onto a U.S. Coast Guard vessel during a patrol in the Indo-Pacific this
year. Within the next year, our coast guards also plan to conduct an at-sea
trilateral exercise and other maritime activities in the Indo-Pacific to
improve interoperability and advance maritime security and safety. We announce
the establishment of a trilateral maritime dialogue to enhance coordination and
collective responses to promote maritime cooperation. We are concerned about
illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. We support the ability of
Filipino and Japanese fisherfolk to pursue their traditional livelihoods. To
build regional capacity and address threats posed by transnational crime,
illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and other maritime challenges,
Japan, the Philippines, and the United States plan to expand our efforts to
provide maritime law enforcement training and support to partner countries in
the region.
Our three nations pledge to strengthen our
extensive coordination to promote maritime domain awareness and deepen
cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. We emphasize our
commitment to advancing multilateral maritime domain awareness cooperation
through such venues as the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain
Awareness (IPMDA). We intend to identify and implement opportunities for
combined training with Southeast Asian regional partners. We are also launching
a Japan-Philippines-U.S. humanitarian assistance and disaster response exercise,
which could be integrated into trilateral or multilateral activities, including
Balikatan 2025, to ensure our countries are ready and able to work together
seamlessly and expeditiously in response to any crisis or contingency. We
resolve to advance trilateral defense cooperation, including through combined
naval training and exercises between our three countries and additional
partners, such as the recently concluded Maritime Cooperative Activity between
Japan, the Philippines, the United States, and Australia, and by coordinating
U.S. and Japanese support for Philippine defense modernization priorities. We
plan to conduct a maritime training activity around Japan in 2025. Japan also
continues to contribute through its new “Official Security Assistance”
cooperation framework. The U.S. and the Philippines welcome Japan’s
revision of the Three Principles on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and
Technology and its Implementation Guidelines, which bolsters cooperation
through joint development and production to enhance our deterrence capabilities
in the region. The U.S. and Japan also welcome the growing defense cooperation
between Australia and the Philippines and between the Philippines and the
Republic of Korea.
Our three nations affirm our commitment to the
complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and strongly condemn the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) escalatory threats and
unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches, including multiple
intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which pose a grave threat to peace
and security. We emphasize the importance of addressing the human rights and
humanitarian concerns of the international community, including the immediate
resolution of the abductions issue. We strongly urge the DPRK to comply with
the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and refrain from continued
development, testing, and transfer of ballistic missiles to any country,
including Russia, which has used these missiles against Ukraine. We assert that
these DPRK actions have severe security implications for the Indo-Pacific and
European regions. As we continue to affirm our commitment to international law,
including the United Nations Charter, we reiterate our unwavering support for
Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its
internationally recognized borders. To that end, we recall the United Nations
General Assembly resolutions stating that no territorial acquisition resulting
from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal. Russia’s threats
of nuclear weapon use in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are
unacceptable, and we state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by
Russia in Ukraine would be completely unjustifiable.
We reaffirm our joint pursuit of a world without
nuclear weapons, with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as its cornerstone,
and call on nuclear weapon states to promote stability and transparency, and
engage in substantive dialogue on reducing nuclear risks. As founding members
of the “FMCT Friends,” we also call for the immediate commencement of
long-overdue negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile
material for nuclear weapons.
We are committed to championing gender equality
and the rights of women and girls in all their diversity. In this regard, we
commit to strengthening the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. We
highlight the leading role of women in preventing violent conflict, delivering
relief and recovery efforts and pledge to advance the full, equal and
meaningful participation of women in peace and political processes. We welcome
the Philippines hosting an International Conference on Women, Peace, and
Security in October this year, to review global implementation of the United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 ahead of its 25th Anniversary in 2025.
Finally, we underscore the importance of strong
democratic institutions, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, gender
equality, and human dignity. We represent proud, resilient democracies, mindful
of our respective challenges but determined to overcome them, and we remain
committed to safeguarding the human rights, media freedom, and labor rights of
our people. These democratic values form the very foundation of our bilateral
relationships and this trilateral partnership. These ideals have helped us
build and sustain the mutual trust between us as leaders and between our
people. United by these shared values, we commit to continuing our work
together to address the consequential issues of our time, and to build a better
future for future generations across our nations, the Indo-Pacific, and the
world.
A new trilateral chapter between our three
nations begins today.Source: The White
House Briefing Room
April 11, 2024
Photo: Reuters
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