By Shirin Bhandari | 2025-11-21

Defense chiefs of the Philippines, the United States, Japan and Australia have thrown their support behind a new Indo-Pacific defense council aimed at tightening military coordination amid rising tensions with China.

Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 1, the four ministers said they "expressed support for the framework to establish" an Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense Co-operation Council and agreed to advance work on the proposal.

In a joint statement, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Australian Minister for Defense Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro and United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth voiced "serious concern regarding China's destabilizing actions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea" and opposed "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion."

The defense leaders cited the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the "legally binding" 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which invalidated China's sweeping claims in the disputed waterway. They also reaffirmed their support for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Kuala Lumpur meeting was the fifth time the four nations' defense leaders have convened in three years, highlighting what they described as a shared commitment to a "free and open Indo-Pacific."

They pledged to enhance "coordinated defense cooperation activities," including more intensive information sharing, joint training and more advanced operational coordination.

The four countries also confirmed plans to take part in next year's Balikatan exercises in the Philippines.

Defense officials said Balikatan 2026 will bring together forces from all four nations "to enhance joint preparedness" through large-scale drills, maritime training and coordinated operations.

Day-to-day cooperation

Manila's defense department said the proposed council is expected to support "greater alignment between policy and operational objectives," giving the four countries a standing mechanism to translate high-level commitments into day-to-day military cooperation.

The Philippines has been rapidly expanding its web of defense agreements as it confronts increasingly aggressive Chinese actions in the South China Sea, a vital waterway carrying close to $3 trillion in trade each year.

Recent deals include a Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan, which allows both sides' troops to deploy to each other's territory for training and exercises, and a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with Canada, adding to similar arrangements with Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Security analyst Chester Cabalza, president of Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation, told The Philippine Daily Inquirer the new initiative "underscores the semblance of the Quad," referring to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue of Australia, India, Japan and the United States, which champions a free and open Indo-Pacific.

He said the South China Sea would be a central arena for coordination as Manila and Tokyo both face maritime and territorial disputes with Beijing, while Washington and Canberra act as "staunch supporters" of the Philippines and Japan.

Cabalza added that establishing the council would help normalize a networked defense architecture in the region that maintains regional-based order without denying freedom of navigation and overflight.

For its part, Beijing sharply criticized the proposed council, calling it a politicized mechanism aimed at containing Beijing as part of the United States' Indo-Pacific strategy.

Commentaries in the state-run The Global Times argued that the four-nation grouping reflects "small-circle politics" and warned that such "mini-multilateral" arrangements will only heighten tensions rather than stabilizing the region.