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Aug 6, 2025: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ferdinand R., India and the Philippines made the decision on Tuesday to transform their existing ties into a Strategic Partnership. Marcos Jr agreeing for expeditious conclusion of the negotiations of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and the Philippines for further promotion of mutual trade.
President Marcos thanked PM Modi for their cooperation in the defense industry and the export of platforms, including the BrahMos, and they agreed to increase their defense cooperation. The two nations called on the relevant parties to exercise self-restraint and commit to peaceful and constructive means of resolving and managing disputes, making a veiled reference to China, and expressed concern for the situation in the South China Sea, particularly in regard to coercive and aggressive actions that have an impact on the peace and stability of the region. Ferdinand R. Ferdinand On Monday, Marcos Jr. arrived in the nation's capital, beginning a five-day state visit to India. The two nations emphasized that the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea, which is final and binding, is a significant milestone and the foundation for peacefully resolving disputes in accordance with international law. The freedom of navigation and overflight, as well as the significance of unimpeded commerce based on the principles of international law, as notably reflected in UNCLOS, were reiterated by India and the Philippines.

They also reaffirmed their full respect for and adherence to international law, particularly in regard to the rights and obligations of States under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its dispute settlement mechanisms, including the geographic and substantive limits of maritime entitlements, the duty to protect and preserve the In 2016, a majority of the arbitral tribunal hearing the Philippines' case against China in the South China Sea had sided with the Philippines.
Declaration on the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership between India and Philippines was issued after talks between PM Modi and President Marcos.
The two leaders agreed that the Strategic Partnership marks a new chapter towards realising the full potential for bilateral, regional and international cooperation between the two countries.
The Strategic Partnership serves as a foundation for the two countries to chart a future-oriented mutually beneficial cooperation and is based on a mutual commitment to strengthen bilateral relations for the continued peace, stability, and prosperity of the two countries and the broader region; The Plan of Action (2025-2029), which was approved by the two nations on August 5, 2025, serves as the foundation for the Strategic Partnership between India and the Philippines. The Philippines and India also agreed to work together closely on global issues of mutual interest in multilateral and regional forums, including the United Nations and its specialized agencies, such as the rule of law in the global commons, counterterrorism, climate change, and sustainable development. utilizing text-based negotiations to actively support the reform and expansion of the United Nations Security Council's membership, both permanent and non-permanent; Both nations emphasized the necessity of cooperating under bilateral, regional, and multilateral platforms to strengthen supply chains, promote trade facilitation, and guarantee that trade contributes to their economic development, reaffirming their shared commitment to a trading system that is free, open, transparent, and based on rules. In his opening remarks during the bilateral meeting, PM Narendra Modi said "it is a historic day for our bilateral relations".
"We are elevating India to strategic partnership levels. Our relationship in the Defense and Security Sector will gain momentum and strength as a result of this. In the last few years, there has been progress in our relations in all sectors- trade, defence, maritime, health, security, food security, development partnership, and people-to-people ties. It is a matter of great happiness that we are setting a plan of action for the next five years. Till July 2027, the Philippines is India's country coordinator. You will be in charge of the ASEAN Chair in 2026," he stated. In a variety of areas, the two nations exchanged memorandums of understanding, including cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space and digital technology.
P Kumaran, Secretary (East), stated during a special media briefing that there was a discussion about defense cooperation. "President Marcos thanked the Prime Minister for working together in the defense industry and exporting defense platforms, such as the BrahMos, to India. Additionally, he demanded increased cooperation in the defense industry. We discussed capacity building, joint exercises, joint cooperative maritime activities, the exchange of training programs between our officials, and all of the standard aspects of defense cooperation as part of our broader cooperation. We discuss expanding India's export opportunities for its defense platforms. I believe that we have exported a number of defense hardware platforms to numerous nations. The Philippines certainly showed interest in working with us to explore opportunities for more defence platforms," he said.
"We're also talking about ship visits and working together in multilateral formats... We are also talking about enhanced cooperation between our coast guards. So basically aimed at sharing best practices, enhancing maritime domain awareness on both sides, talking about enhancing interoperability, working together to enhance our disaster response readiness in the coming years and so on... We emphasized our space capabilities and our space program's cost-effectiveness. "They wanted to try and use some of our space technology, space capabilities to effect social transformation in terms of helping to predict weather events, helping with agriculture, and helping with disaster relief," Kumaran added.

President Marcos said he had indeed studied how cost-effective our space program is. India and the Philippines agreed to make it easier for institutional groups like the Joint Defence Industry and Logistics Committee (JDILC) and the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) to meet on a regular basis to discuss defense cooperation, with an emphasis on defense industrial collaboration, defense technology, research, training, and capacity building.
The two nations agreed to institutionalize military training activities and Service-to-Service interactions, with a greater emphasis on tri-service cooperation and acknowledging the crucial role that the seas and oceans play in meeting the development requirements, rights, and freedoms of the two nations as coastal states, developing economies, and maritime nations of the Indo-Pacific region.