Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Japan and the Philippines build up defense cooperation, Vietnam’s leadership is set to consolidate power, and Elon Musk’s Grok is banned in three countries.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Japan and the Philippines build up defense cooperation, Vietnam’s leadership is set to consolidate power, and Elon Musk’s Grok is banned in three countries.

Philippines-Japan Deepen Defense Relationship

Japan and the Philippines have signed a new defense pact to allow the smooth transfer of materiel between their armed forces.

The agreement is another step toward deepening military cooperation between the two countries and part of Japan’s wider push to expand its security relationships across the Indo-Pacific. The agreement lays out a framework for the two countries’ armed forces to provide each other with ammunition, fuel, food, and other materiel.

The pact helps implement the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA)—signed in 2024 and implemented last year—which allows both countries’ armed forces to legally enter and perform operations in each other’s territory.

Japan has ramped up its security cooperation with the Philippines in other ways, too, steadily donating vessels and other equipment to the Philippine Coast Guard and Navy for years. There are now discussions that the navy could also acquire secondhand warships and air defense missiles from Japan.

These measures are aimed at hedging against Chinese coercion, with both countries facing Chinese claims to their territorial waters.

At the signing on Jan. 15, Philippine Foreign Minister Theresa Lazaro commented that both countries recognized “the value of promoting the rule of law, including the freedom of navigation and overflight, especially in the South China Sea.”

The Chinese response to the latest agreement was predictably spiky, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson warning against the resurgence of “Japanese militarism.”

Manila has been ramping up joint exercises with various partners as a way of signaling international support for its efforts against Chinese maritime encroachment. Last year, the Philippines also held its largest ever joint exercise with Australia and signed visiting forces agreements with New Zealand and Canada. It is currently working on another agreement with France.

Going through the text of the most recent agreement with Japan, one other clause jumped out.

Regarding circumstances under which materiel could be transferred, one scenario included is one involving “protection measures or transportation of........

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