By Robina Asido

Japan Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro warned that the security environment in Southeast Asia is "deteriorating rapidly" and stressed the need to protect the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) unity, centrality, and resilience amid the overlapping disaster and conflict driven "crises".

During the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Informal Meeting with Japan in Cebu, Koizumi enumerated three reasons that caused rapid deterioration of the region's security environment.

"Disasters are growing more severe, striking communications, medical care, and transport at once, conflicts worldwide are reaching our supply chains and energy supplies. And the military balance is shifting fast, raising the risk of coercion against the vulnerable and of dangerous miscalculations," he said.

"These crises do not merely add up; they overlap and amplify one another. So what must we protect? ASEAN's unity, its centrality, and its resilience," he added.

Koizumi explained that "unity means working together despite differences" while "centrality means setting the region's agenda and drawing external partners around it" and resilience is "keeping essential functions and autonomy intact in a crisis."

"Unity gives us a common will. Centrality turns that will into common action. Resilience keeps that action alive when the storm arrives," he said.

Koizumi stressed that "Japan has no wish to decide ASEAN's future on ASEAN's behalf" and assured that his country would support the choice of the ASEAN members.

"Our aim is simple: to widen the options for ASEAN and for each member to understand, decide, and act on its own," he said.

"The direction is yours. Japan will do everything it can to turn your choices into real strength," he added.

However, Koizumi also "offer three perspectives" including ASEAN review of Experts' Working Groups (EWG) priorities, which was underway from 2024.

"We understand that the current seven areas will decrease from 2032. Yet now challenges multiply—complex disasters, AI, and unmanned systems, and the protection of critical undersea infrastructure," he said.

"When challenges change, cooperation must change with them. We might flexibly adjust the scope of existing EWGs or launch time-limited ad hoc initiatives," he added.

Koizumi also suggested "make cooperation across EWGs a lasting habit" and "to engage more widely beyond ASEAN."

"This September in Indonesia, the Exercise Trident Resolve brought three EWGs together for the first time in a joint field exercise. There were challenges, but it was a significant step. Mindful of personnel and budget burdens, we could consider mechanisms to encourage and sustain such cooperation," he said.

"ASEAN decides the conditions and procedures, and EWG participation should remain separate from expanding ADMM-Plus membership. Within those principles, welcoming external countries and relevant organizations will strengthen ASEAN centrality, not weaken it," he added.

As he welcomed all the delegates during the ASEAN-Japan Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. expressed deep appreciation for "Japan’s steadfast support for the unity and centrality of ASEAN."

"Over the decades, the Government and People of Japan have served as value partners of the Philippines, our fellow Member States, and ASEAN as a whole. Our cooperation, at both the bilateral and multilateral levels, has been essential to the security, prosperity, and resilience of our region, particularly in development," he said.

"Our continued cooperation is even more vital, amid challenges in the East and South China Seas, which affect peace and stability in Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific," he added. PHS