President Ferdinand Marcos Jr joins (from left) Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo, Exec. Sec. Lukas Bersamin, Defense Sec. Gibo Teodoro and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo S. Browner during the Armed Forces of the Philippines 1st Semester 2024 Command Conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on July 4, 2024. Revoli S. Cortez, PPA pool 

MANILA — The Philippines is set to draft military interoperability agreements with Canada, France, New Zealand and other like-minded nations, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Monday, weeks after the country signed its Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Japan.

The RAA is an agreement that serves as the legal basis for Filipino and Japanese troops to operate within each other’s territories for military exercises.

“I think the RAA with Japan will not be the last RAA because we are working on RAAs with several other like-minded nations as well,” Teodoro told ANC’s Headstart.

“We are going to work on an RAA hopefully with Canada, France, with New Zealand, and with other countries that escaped my memory at this time,” he said.

Why the Philippine-Japan defense pact matters

“We are also looking at closer relationships with the United Kingdom who has expressed a lot of interest in working with us,” he added.

Manila hopes to seal the new RAAs by next year, the Defense Secretary said.

“That is also why we want the Defense Transformation Bill to come out because we are limited… with 267 employees,” Teodoro said, referring to a proposed measure that would “level up” the Department of National Defense’s (DND) capabilities and personnel.

“Negotiating and finishing an RAA in 6 months is a big accomplishment,” he said.

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The proposed RAAs with Canada, France and New Zealand will be quite similar to the deal between Manila and Tokyo, the DND chief said.

“It will also involve interoperability,” he said. “They will allow armed forces of these countries to operate with the Philippine Armed Forces within the Philippine territorial jurisdictions and vice versa.”  

Political and leadership changes in these countries are not expected to affect their commitment to inking an interoperability agreement with the Philippines, Teodoro said.

“Despite the political changes, the interests remain the same,” he said.

“France would like to work in order to uphold the international rule of law… Indo-Pacific security is important to it,” Teodoro said, noting that he has spoken with his French counterpart.

News of Manila’s plan to craft new defense deals with more countries comes a day after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that the Philippines and China reached an agreement on the conduct of resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea.

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Teodoro said the DFA has yet to relay to the DND the details of the agreement. But he maintained the Philippines would not renege in its commitment to uphold its rights and sovereignty in its exclusive economic zone.

“We cannot be deterred from doing what we need to do in order to build up our credible defense posture which includes our alliances with like-minded nations for the upholding of a rules-based international order,” he said.

Aside from its RAA with Japan, the Philippines also has a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with Australia, and a Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States.

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