New Delhi: Amid its maritime tensions with China and its plans to modernise its military as a deterrence, Philippines envoy to India Josel Francisco Ignacio told in an interview that defence cooperation is a key element of growing bilateral ties.

Noting that both India and Philippines have convergence on key security issues, he said that defence cooperation being implemented is more than just acquisitions of military equipment.

“Defence equipment acquisitions from India is just one aspect of a larger defence relationship. That is also very rapidly rising and expanding. We have military education and training. I am happy to say we have Filipino cadets in Dehradun and Chennai in Indian military academies,” Ignacio told ThePrint in an interview here in the national capital.

The Philippine ambassador added: “Defence to defence and military to military dialogue, exchanges of views on issues of common concern also play an important part in this relationship. I am happy to tell our audience that the defence partnership is burgeoning on many fronts.”

New Delhi and Manila in January 2022 signed a $374.6 million deal for the export of a shore-based variant of an anti-ship cruise missile – BrahMos. The deal was India’s first major international export order for the Indian defence industry. The missiles have a range of 290 km.

In April 2024, India delivered the first set of launchers and missiles to The Philippines. However, experts from the strategic security space have questioned whether Manila has the capabilities to operate such missiles, including Ashley Tellis, a former senior advisor to the US State Department.

To this, ambassador Ignacio explained that the BrahMos missile systems is an “important element” to the nation’s defence modernisation strategy and deterrent capabilities, but just one part of its overall archipelagic defence plans.

“What we intend to do is to build our deterrent capabilities with a multitude of partners and we are pleased that India has risen to become one of those partners in our defence modernisation,” said the ambassador. “Of course it goes beyond equipment acquisition, we would also want to build our capability to maintain, to operate, to upgrade.”

In November 2024, India and the Philippines will also be celebrating 75 years of ties between the two countries. The ambassador highlighted his hope of a high-level delegation visit happening later in the year to celebrate this moment, reminiscent of then President Ram Nath Kovind’s visit to Manila in 2019 to celebrate 70 years of ties.

India A ‘Reliable Friend’, Convergence of Interests In Indo-Pacific

In recent months, Manila has seen a series of confrontations with China in the South China Sea. In June, the Philippines claimed that a Filipino sailor was seriously injured in a high-speed ramming incident by the Chinese coast guard. Beijing rejected Manila’s claims and alleged that it was the Philippines ship that approached its coast guard vehicle in a deliberate and unprofessional manner.

“The tensions have sort of become of great concern recently. There have been moves by the Philippines to de-escalate as our President himself has articulated. We are of course talking to partners. Our relationship, our dialogue with partners, our exchange of views with partners form an important element of our diplomacy on the South China Sea issue,” explained the Philippine ambassador to ThePrint.

He added: “We are very pleased that India is part of that circle of our very close friends with whom we regularly exchange views and provide some information by which we can mutually benefit in terms of creating a larger picture of what we confront in the larger Indo-Pacific.”

The tensions in the South China Sea revolve around the claims over the Second Thomas Shoal. In 2016, an arbitral tribunal ruled in favour of the Philippines, determining that China’s historical claims and activities in the region were unlawful. India supports Manila’s position on the situation.

“To an extent, state-to-state relations almost follow the psychology of the people. Certain common issues, common threads tend to build and reinforce relationships and that goes for states as well and, I think, that is what we see happening to The Philippines and India,” said Ignacio.

Deepening Trade Links

The ambassador also explained that Manila and New Delhi are looking to improve trade ties, including creating a working group to look at avenues to deepen the financial technology partnership between the two countries.

In the financial year 2023-2024, trade between India and the Philippines touched record highs of $3.5 billion, according to data published by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry. While this is a 15 percent increase in comparison to the previous year, the overall share in India’s total trade is about 0.21 percent.

“Compared to the US and even our neighbours in ASEAN [trade ties] are relatively small. We acknowledge that there is plenty of room for us to ramp up trade by-and-by over the medium term. This is why we are looking at various modalities. I think the challenge has been finding complementaries,” said the ambassador.

To kick-start trade ties, Ignacio explained that the two countries in 2020 started negotiations for terms of reference over a preferential trade agreement (PTA). He further explained that the two countries are “very close” to completing negotiations over the terms of reference and starting on the negotiations over specific “product” lines.

Agencies