The Philippines has committed $35 billion (€32 billion) over the next decade to modernize its military to boost external defense capabilities amid escalating tensions with Beijing. Manila has signed defense cooperation deals with other countries, including the United States, Japan, India and Sweden. Sec. Teodoro said the Philippines would be “looking to engage Germany as a possible supplier of these trainings and weapons capabilities. “These are in the command and control, anti-access aerial denial, maritime domain, a aerial domain and in higher technologically capable equipment,” he told a joint news conference.
Sec. Pistorius said the deal could be signed as early as October 2024, Pistorius and Serc. Teodoro said they “strongly opposed any unilateral attempt to advance expansive claims, especially through force or coercion. “Sec. Teodoro said the Philippines was not provoking Beijing and did not seek war, but said the standoff was simply due to “China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most if not all of the South China Sea”.
In recent months, Manila has had run-ins with Beijing over the disputed waters in the Indo-Pacific. Recently, the Philippines accused the Chinese military of intentionally ramming Manila’s navy boats, seriously injuring a Filipino sailor.
China has claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas claimed as exclusive economic zones by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia in 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said Beijing’s claims had no legal basis. China rejects that decision continue is illegal intrusion in the WPS.
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