The two countries elevate partnership that will also involve trade, development, and maritime cooperation
MANILA, Philippines – South Korea and the Philippines on Monday, October 7, signed an agreement to elevate its ties to a strategic partnership.
The agreementwas made official in Malacañang Palace Monday morning, during South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s state visit to the Philippines. This is Yoon’s first visit to Manila as president and the first time a South Korean has undertaken a state visit to Manila in over a decade.
In announcing the strategic partnership, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spoke of increasingly complex geopolitical realities. The Philippine President also said that they spoke about concerns in the West Philippine Sea, as well as the Korean Peninsula.
Manila and Seoul signed several memoranda of agreement (MOA), as well as a loan agreement for an infrastructure project inthe Philippines. One of the MOAs covers a feasibility study to rehabilitate the Bataan Nuclear power plant, a long unused project of President Marcos’ namesake and father, the late dictator.
In a short speech before their bilateral meeting, Marcos highlighted the “robust partnership in a myriad of fields of cooperation including defense and security, maritime cooperation, trade, development, and people-to-people exchanges.”
“From here, there is nowhere else to go but up,” added the Philippine President.“As we chart the future direction of our relations, the way forward is clear: the time for us to elevate the ties between the Philippines and the Republic of Korea to a strategic relationship,” Marcos added.
Modernizing AFP
Yoon, speaking in the same press conference, said the strategic partnership agreement means South Korea will “actively take part… in the modernization of the AFP.”
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) only recently finalized Horizon 3, or phase three of its modernization wishlist. It comes as Manila begins a long-overdue shift to prioritize external defense.
It is usually political, security, and defense cooperation that takes the spotlight in strategic partnerships. Manila is strategic partners with only a handful of countries — most recently with Australia, Vietnam, and Japan.
The new partnership with South Korea is just one of the Philippines’ many efforts to build on existing relationships in the region and beyond, as well as forge new ones under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration.
Manila and Seoul are both treaty-allies of the United States through separate Mutual Defense Treaties. That means that the US has pledged to come to both the Philippines and South Korea’s defense in the event of an armed attack, and vice versa.
Following his visit to the Philippines, Yoon will fly to Singapore and then Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
A tense Indo-Pacific
A strategic partnership between the two countries comes at a tense time for the region. Both countries have experienced incursions by superpower neighbor China, although Manila has had it much worse in the West Philippine Sea, or part of the South China Sea that includes the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Both countries, considered middle powers in the region and global stage, also find themselves in a delicate balance amid tensions and growing competition between China and their treaty-ally, the United States.
The two countries have another thing in common — they are part of separate multilateral grouping with the US and Japan.
In a joint statement following a meeting between Yoon, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, US President Joe Biden in Camp David, the three leaders expressed concern over “actions inconsistent with the rules-based international order, which undermine regional peace and prosperity” and called China out for “dangerous and aggressive behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims.”
In that same statement, South Korea, Japan, and the US affirmed that the 2016 arbitral award, which affirmed the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, is the “legal basis for the peaceful resolution of maritime conflicts between the parties to that proceeding.”
In the joint declaration for the Strategic Partnership, the two countries “reaffirmed the importance of respect for the rule of law, maritime security and safety, and the peaceful resolution of disputes” as they shared “concerns about actions in the South China Sea that are inconsistent with the rules-based international order, which undermines peace and prosperity.”
Both Seoul and Manila made the same affirmation of the 2016 arbitral award‘simportancein signing the strategic partnership.
The two countries expect a Free Trade Agreement to kick in soon, following the Philippine Senate’s ratification of the agreement. The deal is still pending before Korean National Assembly.
Seoul’s envoy in Manila, Lee Sang-hwa, earlier said that the two countries will be elevating their “partnership in maritime security to a higher level,” as it celebrates 75 years of diplomatic ties.
South Korea has previous expressed “grave concern” after the China Coast Guard used water cannons against Philippine ships in March 2024 during a mission to rotate troops and bring new supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.
Tensions over Ayungin Shoal, a feature located just over 100 nautical miles from the Philippines, have since been brought down after Manila and Beijing agreed on a “provisional arrangement” covering resupply missions to the feature. – Rappler.com
