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Context

• 4^thJoint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting between India and the Philippines was held in New Delhi.

Highlights of the meeting

• During the meeting, both sides reviewed the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation and discussed effective and practical initiatives to further expand the engagements.
• The co-chairs reaffirmed their commitment to implement 2006 agreement concerning defence cooperation, based on mutual trust and understanding, common interest and shared values of democracy and rule of law.
• Both sides agreed to initiate measures to enhance cooperation in Defence Industry and Technology domain and look forward to greater synergy in effectively deepening bilateral cooperative engagements across the spectrum.

Brief on India-Philippines Bilateral Relations

Background

• India and the Philippines formally established diplomatic relations on 26 November 1949, shortly after both countries gained independence [Philippines in 1946 and India in 1947].
• Relations have been friendly with shared values and commonalities, such as vibrant democratic polity, pluralistic society, rule of law, an independent judiciary and free press, and the widespread use of the English language.
• However, it would be fair to say that despite shared values and complementarities, the full potential of the relationship between the two countries is only gradually being realized.
  • Culturally, while many of the countries in the region enjoyed civilizational links with India, in the case of the Philippines, this is yet to be fully explored and documented in a systematic way.
• When India launched the Look East Policy and intensified partnership with ASEAN in 1992, this also resulted in stronger relations with countries in the region including the Philippines.
• With the Act East Policy initiated in 2014, the relationship with Philippines has diversified further into political-security; trade and industry and people-to-people realms.

Political relations

• Bilateral relations have strengthened over the years with the exchange of high level visits, telephonic conversations, virtual meetings, etc. which continued even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The umbrella bilateral mechanism is the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) co-chaired by EAM and the Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
• Official level foreign policy and security dialogue meetings have been held regularly.
• The Philippines has been supportive of a greater role for India in the UN Security Council.
• India has been offering humanitarian assistance to the Philippines from time to time, though at a modest level.

Defence relations

• The main stay of bilateral defence cooperation continues to remain capacity building with training exchanges and visits of delegations and units of the Indian Navy (including aircraft) and Coast Guard.
• However, defence ties were significantly enhanced with the signing in January 2022 of a contract worth US$ 374.9 million to supply the BrahMos missile system.
• Both countries signed an Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) on Defence Cooperation in 2006.
• A Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) at the Joint Secretary level was set up under this MoU.
• The two countries also signed an MoU on Defence Industry and Logistics cooperation in Nov 2017 and have also set up a separate Joint Defence Industry and Logistics Committee (JDILC).

Trade and Commerce 

• Bilateral trade between India and Philippines (in terms of value) increased from 1.89 billion USD in 2015-16 to 2.84 billion USD in 2021-22.
• There has been decline in the volume of bilateral trade since 2017-18, however, it has started growing back steadily and is expected to cross USD 3 billion mark.

Financial Year	India's Export to Philippines	India's Import from Philippines	Trade with Philippines
2015-16	1353.34	542.16	1895.50
2016-17	1482.52	494.62	1977.14
2017-18	1692.83	764.36	2457.20
2018-19	1743.64	581.10	2324.74
2019-20	1525.96	572.47	2049.79
2020-21	1457.30	572.47	2029.77
2021-22	2107.24	729.08	2836.31

[in US$ million]

• Philippines account for around 20% of total Indian pharma exports to the ASEAN region.
• In April 2022, an Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Custom Matters was signed which would facilitate trade.
• Estimated Indian investments in the Philippines are valued around US $ 5 billion.
• Financial Technology (Fintech) is one of the focused sectors identified by the leaders of both the countries.
• Agriculture is another focused sector identified by the leaders of both the countries.
• Health and Medicine is another focused sector identified by the leaders for bilateral engagement. Philippines account for around 20% of total Indian pharma exports to the ASEAN region.
• A bilateral MoU on Tourism Cooperation was signed in 2019.

Science and Technology

• Bilateral Programme of Cooperation (POC) in Science and Technology, for the period 2019-2022 was signed in 2019 outlining five broad areas of cooperation, namely agricultural biotechnology; health, pharmaceutical & medical sciences; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Material Science & Technology; and Ocean & Atmospheric Science.
• Both countries are also working on finalizing MOU on cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space.

Training and Education

• Philippines is one of the beneficiaries of India’s flagship capacity building programme – Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC).
• To date, over 1000 Filipino professionals have availed of courses offered.
• India also offers scholarships, tuition fee waivers to students from the Philippines under its ‘Doctoral Fellowship for India in ASEAN’ programme and the ‘Study in India’ programme.

Culture

• The Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) between the two countries was renewed for the period 2019-2023 during the President of India’s visit to the Philippines in 2019.

Diaspora

• The Indian community in the Philippines is estimated to be around 1,50,000.
• Punjabis and Sindhis (80:20) constitute the bulk of the community. While the Sindhis are primarily engaged in trading, especially in the retail sector and also some manufacturing.

Challenges in the relations

• Even as India and the Philippines are inching closer on security and defence cooperation, Manila’s perception of how this deepening relationship may be viewed by other large powers in the region like China and the US, will be an important factor for its future course.
• While India and the US have aligned on the Indo-Pacific strategy of inclusive development and freedom of the oceans, China and India have not had the best of bilateral relations in the past few years.
• The Philippines has struggled with its China policy as it sought to reap economic benefits by not pursuing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) tribunal ruling of 2016 against China. But realising that it wasn’t working out too well, the Duterte administration swung back to its oldest alliance with the US.
• Very recently, the Philippines had summoned the Chinese ambassador to explain “lingering presence” of Chinese naval vessels in Filipino waters.

Way Forward

• A Comprehensive Strategic Partnership can be expected to serve two broad objectives at the moment.
• First is, a renewed focus on defence modernisation, especially of the Philippines, since rejuvenation of local capacity may be critical in acceptance of and cooperation with new emerging security arrangements in the region.
• Second is that a CSP can be helpful in meaningful engagement of India and the Philippines at important multilateral ASEAN-led organisations like the EAS.

PRACTICE QUESTION Q) Despite shared values and complementarities, the full potential of the relationship between India and Philippines is yet to be realized. Examine. (250 words)

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1912585