World
Japan Deploys 1,400 Troops and Live-Fire Units to Balikatan 2026 — First Weapons on Philippine Soil Since WWII
Invoking the new Japan–Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement, Japan's Ministry of Defense is sending approximately 1,400 JSDF personnel, a helicopter destroyer, a tank-landing ship, and Type 88 surface-to-ship missile systems to Balikatan 41-2026. China's foreign ministry warned that external military cooperation 'may very well backfire.'
