Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr., and Japan Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF) Chief of Staff Gen. Yoshida Yoshihide held a virtual bilateral talk on April 20 aimed at deepening cooperation for capacity building between the two armies.

Yoshida informed Brawner about the successful ministerial meeting of Philippine and Japanese foreign affairs and defense officials on April 9, geared at deepening the Philippine-Japan security partnership.

The two Army leaders discussed deepening cooperation for capacity-building. Yoshida also invited Brawner to visit Japan to sign the revised Philippine Army-Philippine Marine Corps-JGSDF (PA-PA-JGSDF) Terms of Reference.

Brawner, for his part, thanked Yoshida for his commitment to strengthening relations between the two armies, particularly Japan’s equipment donation that bolstered the humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) of the Philippine Army.

It can be recalled that the Japanese government, through its Ministry of Defense, donated in October 2021 nearly P50 million worth of water search-and-rescue (Wasar) and collapsed structure search-and-rescue (CSSR) equipment for the 525th Engineer Combat Battalion (525ECB), the Army’s primary disaster-response unit.

The 525ECB disaster-response teams and their Japanese counterparts held week-long WASAR and CSSR training drills in November 2021. Office of the Army Chief Public Affairs