India, Philippines to boost defence ties

India and the Philippines agreed Friday to enhance bilateral defence engagement and maritime cooperation, especially in training and procurement of military equipment, and to step up information-sharing to counter terrorism.

The decisions were made during a virtual meeting of the joint commission on bilateral cooperation that was co-chaired by external affairs minister S Jaishankar and Teodoro Locsin Jr, secretary of department of foreign affairs of the Philippines.

There is considerable defence cooperation between the two countries and the Philippines is considered to be among the front-runners for acquiring the BrahMos cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia. Efforts to conclude a deal for the missile system this year were hit by the economic impact of the

Covid-19 crisis, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.

The two sides “agreed to further strengthen defence engagement and maritime cooperation...especially in military training and education, capacity building, regular goodwill visits, and procurement of defence equipment”, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

They also agreed to “enhance cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism with information exchange between concerned agencies and support in terms of specialised training needs”, the statement added.

Jaishankar tweeted that his meeting with Locsin “focused on taking forward cooperation in trade and investment, defence, education, ICT and space”.

The Indian side underlined “our convergence on Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific,” he added.