Philippines President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr’s 5-day India visit to boost defence ties

Philippines President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr is expected to visit India from August 4-8 to expand defence partnership and trade ties in the backdrop of acquisition of BrahMos missiles from here.

The Philippines was the first foreign buyer of India’s BrahMos missiles and a defence cooperation arrangement with focus on the maritime domain could be concluded during the presidential visit, it has been learnt. India delivered the first batch of BrahMos Missile system to the Philippines on April 19 2024.

In fact, defence cooperation is one of the strong pillars of bilateral relations and a promising area for future collaboration between India and the Philippines. Indian Navy ships have made regular port calls to the Philippines and have repaired ships for Vietnam. The Indian Navy and Philippines Navy are also working on hydrographic cooperation. India has been consistent in its position on freedom of navigation and territorial integrity in the South China Sea region.

During his address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last year, Marcos Jr said that his country “will pursue more robust collaboration with friends such as India”.

The Philippines is keen to get more Indian tourists, and has announced visa-free travel for Indian nationals. The direct flights are expected to restart from the last quarter of the year. Bilateral trade between the two countries had grown steadily to reach $3.5 billion in 2023-24 (Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India).

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To facilitate bilateral trade, both countries signed an Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Custom Matters in April 2022 (ratified in June 2023). Negotiations on the Preferential Trade Agreement were revived with a virtual meeting in 2023.



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