Philippines Hails India as Top Partner After BrahMos Missile Rollout

At a private event on Wednesday evening in Washington, Romualdez highlighted India's sale of BrahMos missiles to the Philippines as evidence of a strong defence partnership.

"We look at India now as one of our top partners and friends. They have been very supportive of the Philippines...We are actually buying quite many defence equipment like BrahMos and are also working with India on the technology side," he added.

His statement comes days after the Philippine Marine Corps publicly unveiled India's BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system.

The $375 million deal signed in 2022 with India's BrahMos Aerospace provides the Philippines with missiles capable of striking targets up to 290 kilometres, strengthening its deterrence in the South China Sea. The system is operated by the Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile Battalion as part of the Philippines' broader military modernisation efforts.

The Ambassador also recalled Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos' visit to India in August and called it a "very fruitful" trip.

"Our President had a recent state visit to India not too long ago. It was a very fruitful visit that we had. So, we look forward to working with India."

Marcos met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials during a 5-day visit, and the two sides announced an upgraded strategic partnership aimed at deepening cooperation in trade, defence, and maritime security.

They also agreed to expand collaboration in space, tourism, culture, and digital technologies.

Measures included Indian support for a pilot project to establish the Philippines' Sovereign Data Cloud Infrastructure and an invitation for Manila to join the Information Fusion Centre - Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR).

Both sides also adopted the Terms of Reference to begin negotiations on a Preferential Trade Agreement.

After the talks, PM Modi said both countries were "committed to peace, security, prosperity and a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region," while Marcos added that, "We want to work with you for a free and open Indo-Pacific."

- IANS