To Counter China, Look to the ‘Other Trilat’

To Counter China, Look to the ‘Other Trilat’

The U.S.-Philippines-Japan partnership needs institutionalization.

Naofumi Tsumura, director of the guard and rescue department of the Japan Coast Guard's 10th regional headquarters, speaks to media from the helicopter deck of a Japan Coast Guard ship at the end of maritime exercises with the Philippines and the United States Coast Guards in the waters around Kagoshima, Japan, on June 20. November 7, 2025, 12:01 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

In June, Coast Guard ships hailing from the United States, the Philippines, and Japan undertook joint operations near Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture, on the cusp of the East China Sea. At a time when China is wielding its own Coast Guard to bully neighbors and craft a new regional order defi