Manila, Oct. 29 -- Ranking defense officials of the Philippines and Japan on Wednesday expressed their opposition to any attempts that would change the status quo in the East China Sea and South China Sea through force.

This after Department of National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Minister of Defense of Japan Koizumi Shinjiro held a defense ministerial meeting in the Philippines.

"The two Ministers, in light of the increasingly severe and complex security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, reiterated their strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea and the South China Sea," the joint statement of the two officials said.

Teodoro and Koizumi also s...