The Philippines and Germany yesterday committed to signing a defense cooperation arrangement this year, vowing to stand for the international rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.
German Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro committed to establishing long-term relations between their armed forces to expand training and bilateral exchanges, explore opportunities to expand bilateral armaments cooperation and engage in joint projects.
The two met in Manila during the first such visit by a German defense minister, as their countries mark 70 years of diplomatic relations.
Photo: Reuters
Teodoro said the Philippines, seeking to modernist its military to boost external defense, would be “looking to engage Germany as a possible supplier of these capabilities.”
“These are in the command and control, anti-access aerial denial, maritime domain, aerial domain and in higher technologically capable equipment,” Teodoro told a news conference also attended by Pistorius.
Manila and Berlin are deepening military ties as tensions have flared in the past few months between China and the Philippines, which have traded accusations over run-ins in disputed areas of the South China Sea, including charges the China intentionally rammed Manila’s navy boats seriously injuring a Filipino sailor.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas claimed as exclusive economic zones by other nations. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said Beijing’s claims had no legal basis. China rejects that decision.
“This ruling remains valid, without any exceptions,” Pistorius said. “It is our obligation to strengthen the maritime border and we are living up to it.”
The South China Sea is a vital trade route with more than US$3 trillion in ship-borne trade passing through it every year.
Teodoro said the Philippines was not provoking China and did not seek war, but reiterated Manila’s stance that the only cause of conflict in the waterway “is China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most if not all of the South China Sea.”
Germany on Friday joined the US-led UN Command in South Korea, becoming the 18th nation in a group that helps police the heavily fortified border with North Korea and has committed to defend the South in the event of a war.
Pistorius said that move was evidence of Berlin’s strong belief that European security is closely linked to security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Germany’s commitments and engagements in the region “are not directed against anybody,” Pistorius said in Manila. “Instead, we are focusing on maintaining rules-based order, securing freedom of navigation and protecting trade routes.”
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
RSS