The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) dispatched three members of its Mobile Cooperation Team (MCT), a special team that provides foreign coast guard agencies with technical support on maritime safety and security, to provide capacity-building support to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in jointly with the US Coast Guard (USCG) from 14 May (Sun.) to 27 May (Sat.) 2023, in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

MCT members participated as training instructors in the Boarding Officer Course, which was conducted jointly by the JCG and the USCG, and trained PCG officers on arresting techniques.

In addition to the PCG members who participated in this training, officers from the Philippine National Police, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Center, and the Vietnam Department of Fisheries Surveillance also participated.

Those programs were conducted as part of US-Japan joint efforts named "SAPPHIRE". Both the USCG and the MCT collaborated to support the PCG in capacity building. This was the third time for the USCG and the JCG to jointly conduct training for foreign coast guard　agencies since the signing of the annex of the Memorandum of Cooperation last year.

The JCG will continue to cooperate with coast guard agencies in other countries to realize a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) based on the rule of law. JCG will also engage actively to contribute to developing coast guard agencies in the Indo-Pacific region.