Philippines, Germany agree to broaden defence ties

MANILA, Aug 05 (AFP): The Philippines and Germany have agreed to deepen military cooperation, their defence ministers said on Sunday, as Manila pushes back after a series of confrontations with China.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro met in Manila and pledged to sign a defence cooperation agreement by the end of the year.

Teodoro said the agreement would focus on "mutual understanding regarding capabilities, training (and) exchange of information".

There have been escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

"We collaborate because we have a shared vision of respect for the United Nations Charter... and our desire to see a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific," Teodoro told a joint news conference with Pistorius in the Philippine capital.

They vowed to build "long-lasting relations" between their armed forces and flagged the possibility of Germany supplying military equipment to the Philippines.

Manila has been seeking to boost defence ties in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond in the face of China's increasing confidence in asserting its claims over the South China Sea.

Pistorius is the first German defence minister to visit the Philippines.

Germany is one of the Philippines' oldest formal defence partners through a 1974 administrative agreement that includes the training of Filipino troops in Germany.

Pistorius said security and stability between their respective regions were interconnected and hoped the agreement would be signed "before the end of the year, maybe already in October".