By Robina Asido

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) expressed hope that the reciprocal access agreement or also known as "Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)" with Japan will be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the country next month.

"We hope so," AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. said when asked about this during the FOCAP forum in Quezon City on Thursday.

"We are hoping that the Visiting Forces Agreement will be signed already so that the Japanese forces can come to the country to join with us and in the same manner we can also send our troops to Japan to train with their forces," he added.

Kishida is expected to visit the Philippines in the first week of November.

"It does not depend entirely on the military. The documents are now with DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) so we are hoping that by the end of the year it will be signed so that by the start of next year we can already do more engagements," he said.

Brawner noted that after the signing of the VFA with Japan, he expects that "a lot of other agreements will follow." DMS