SpaceWar.com reports: “Japan and the Philippines will hold high-level defence talks next month, Manila said Friday, as the two countries seek to boost ties in the face of an increasingly confrontational China.

Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa will discuss ‘bilateral and defence and security issues affecting the region’ at the July 8 meeting in Manila, a Philippine foreign affairs department statement said.

The talks follow escalating confrontations at sea between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to nearly all of the South China Sea.

Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over Japan-controlled disputed islands in the East China Sea. Japan, which occupied the Philippines during World War II, is negotiating a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Manila that would allow the countries to deploy troops on each other’s territory…”