Philippines & Australia

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The Australian Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, has just met with his Philippine Defence counterpart, the Secretary of National Defense, Carlito Galvez Jr, in Manila.

The pair are now giving a media conference .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news

The Philippines Secretary of National Defense, Carlito Galvez said: "This visit has demonstrated the commitment of the Australian and Philippine governments to further deepen our bilateral defence relations between nations.

"As Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has said, Australia’s leadership is founded on a history of personal connections and shared interest. Our nations look forward to elevating our partnership, as already agreed by the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese last November.

"During our meeting, the deputy prime minister and minister for defence and I discussed the defence cooperation between our countries.

"In particular, we recorded the successful conduct and outcome of last year’s bilateral dialogue. This meant an engagement across several areas of collaboration because we also agreed to explore other possible areas of cooperation.

We reaffirm the need to work together towards a common goal of maintaining a free, open and secure diplomacy agreement. The Philippines has also noted its appreciation for Australian support and its continued support during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Australian government has donated more than 8 million doses of vaccine.

"The Philippines and Australia believe in the importance of collaboration and like-minded security in the region whereby nations stood freely, and pursue stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific region.

"Building on our defence departments to regularly meet, I look forward to the next meeting with the deputy prime minister in Australia.

"I really love Australia."

Defence Minister Marles went on to say what is on the agenda for the two nations:

Marles stepped up afterward, emphasising the friendship between Australia and the Phillipines and saying there has never been greater strategic alignment between the two nations ..

"Can I start by thanking the secretary and general for having me and my delegation here. It feels very significant to be leading the first ministerial delegation from our country to the Philippines since the election here and the election in Australia last year.

What is really clear, as Carlito and I got to meet straightaway, there is a sense of rapport and warmth and friendship in our relationship which I think speaks to the one that exists between our two nations.

There are deep connections over a long period of time between Australia and the Philippines, the people to people connections.

Today the Filipino-Australian community numbers are 400,000, one of the largest in our country and one of the largest Filipino diasporas around the world.

What it means is that there are so many people across both of our countries that have deep connections with each other in our respective countries. Those connections underpin a sense of warmth, sense of trust, a sense of affection.

When we start talking about our strategic interests and the matters which go to our nations, those discussions happen upon a really solid personal human foundation of trust, friendship and affection.

Today I think Australia and the Philippines have a greater strategic alignment than we have had in any prime minister area, and in our respective history.

Both countries are allies of the United States, both countries have China as our largest trading partners. Both the Philippines and Australia are completely committed to a global rule-based order.

It is deeply connected to our respective national interests that the rules of the road as they apply in a body of water such as the South China Sea, the word conviction, all these principles are completely essential to our national interest. And to our collective security.

Today, building on that sense of strategic alignment, we have talked about the way in which we can take what has been a very strong relationship between our two countries over many decades to an even higher level.

And really an unprecedented level.

Later this year we look forward to signing the strategic partnership between our two countries which comes on top of the first meeting between prime minister Albanese and president Marcus in November of last year.

As we have both said, we will be establishing an annual basis as a result of today’s meeting, defence ministers meeting between our two countries it becomes a form institutional part of the architecture of our two countries.

We look forward to the first of those meetings after this occurring in Australia where will be welcoming Defence Secretary Carlito back to his second home.

We’re going work together to look at ways in which we can deepen the opportunities where Filipino servicemen and women can work alongside Australian servicemen and women.

To that end, we are building upon the trading occurring right now, and looking at ways in which we can pursue joint patrols together in the South China Sea.

Looking for ways in which we can do more exercises together.

We are sending one of the largest defence contingents to exercise Balakatan in the coming months. We look forward to the Philippines for the first time sending servicemen to exercise Talisman Sabre in Australia in August.

All of this speaks to a deepening relationship, a relationship built by very strong foundation. Both at the level of government and the level of people.

We’re really excited and filled with optimism about where this relationship goes.

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