India-Philippines Defence Deal: ‘SCS part of global common’ – Inside Strategic Partnership Announcement

A strategic partnership has been announced between India and the Philippines with the spotlight on defence. The announcement followed PM Narendra Modi and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday (August 5), after which they shared the upgrade in their relationship to a Strategic Partnership.

“Strengthening defence relations are a symbol of deep mutual trust,” said PM Modi at Hyderabad House after their talks. It is worth mentioning here that both the countries recently concluded their first-ever joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, the disputed territory which China claims its own.

India-Philippines strategic partnership announcement came after their navies conducted a joint naval drill for the first time. Three Indian Navy ships – INS Delhi, Shakti and Kiltan – took part in exercises in Philippine waters, marking a significant expansion of India’s security presence in the Indo-Pacific.

India-Philippines Defence Deal: What are the highlights?

With defence cooperation at the heart of it, India and the Philippines have declared a strategic partnership. PM Modi called the strategic partnership a major step forward, and shared that “a comprehensive Action Plan has also been formulated to translate the potential of this partnership into results.”

India and the Philippines also signed terms of references for staff-level talks between all three services, while their strategic partnership focuses on “co-development and co-production of defence equipment”.

A joint declaration said, “Enhancing cooperation in the area of maritime security including through collaborative efforts for enhanced maritime domain awareness (MDA), cooperation in ship-building, maritime connectivity, coastal surveillance, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), pollution control and search and rescue (SAR) between Navies and Coast Guards,” said the declaration.

How will India help the Philippines develop its submarine infra?

In addition to their growing defence ties, both the countries have also been going through discussions for cooperation in developing submarine infrastructure in the Philippines, training facilities, helping them with ship design and naval modernisation.

P. Kumaran, the Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, informed that India has offered a wide range of defence platforms, which may interest Manila as a part of its “archipelagic defence system.” Notably, the Philippines is the first country to procure three batteries of the BrahMos missile systems from India.

The India-Philippines BrahMos deal is worth a whopping $375 million and was signed in 2022. As part of the agreement, India had shipped the second batch of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile systems to the Philippines in April this year.

India-Philippines relations: What the view on South China Sea?

While addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, Kumaran underlined that out position on the South China Sea is clear and consistent. “We consider the South China Sea as a part of global commons, and we support freedom of navigation, overflight in the region and legitimate commerce through the waters of the South China Sea.”

Stressing that India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, he added that we also believe that any difference between the parties concerned should be resolved peacefully by respecting the legal and diplomatic processes, and without resorting to the threat or use of force.