France and the Philippines are set to initiate discussions next month for a defense pact that would allow troops to conduct exercises on each other's soil.
France and the Philippines will begin talks next month on a defense pact that would allow troops from each country to hold exercises in the other’s territory, the French ambassador said Thursday. French and Philippine officials will meet in Paris next month for talks on a visiting forces agreement, French Ambassador to the Philippines Marie Fontanel said. She said the defense chiefs of both countries agreed in Manila last December to pursue such an accord.
We will have an opportunity in May to maybe start officially the negotiations or, at least, discuss the modalities,' Fontanel said at a news conference with French Ambassador to the Indo-Pacific Marc Abensour. The Philippines currently has status-of-forces agreements with the United States and Australia. The agreements provide a legal framework for the entry of foreign forces into a country.
France has been boosting its security engagements with the Philippines. A French navy ship is joining U.S. and Philippine navy ships in and near the disputed South China Sea as part of largescale combat-readiness exercises by longtime treaty allies Manila and Washington that started Monday. Abensour renewed France’s commitment to helping maintain freedom of navigation and overflight and respect for the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in the region.
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