Japan and its allied Philippines agreed to a "strategic dialogue" as a means to bolster defense tech and equipment cooperation, both nations announced Monday.

Japan and the Philippines have agreed to further deepen their defense collaborations and start talks on an arrangement to protect shared military information in the face of mutual alarm over China’s increasing aggressive actions in the region.

Japan and the Philippines agreed on Monday to further deepen defence ties in the face of an "increasingly severe" security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, Japanese defence minister Gen Nakatani said on Monday.