Amid escalating strategic rivalries in the Indo-Pacific, the Balikatan Exercise 2025 underscored a resolve to deter coercion and maintain a rules-based maritime order.
The Philippines is building new security partnerships as well as undertaking new maritime strategies to address some of the asymmetries in the maritime space vis-à-vis China.
The intensification of China’s hard-line territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, matched by its unilateral actions, are threatening regional peace and stability.
A Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and the Philippines would be fruitful in not only strengthening the bilateral relations between the two, but also in adding heft to the security architecture of the Indo-Pacific.
The BrahMos deal with the Philippines marks a convergence between India’s Act East and Defence Export policies and adds to its profile as a reliable defence partner in the Indo-Pacific.
