The Philippines and the United States are close to finalizing a new defense agreement that could allow the two militaries to share top-secret intelligence and the United States to export defense apparatus and defense-generation know-how to the Philippines.
According to a statement issued in Washington D. C. , the Philippines and the United States agreed to conclude the General Agreement on Security of Military Information (GSOMIA) by the end of 2024.
GSOMIA any of the countries for percentage of confidential information. The law also requires the Philippines to be a signatory to GSOMIA before it can obtain any defense-related or generation-transfer related aircraft.
The two sides have been negotiating GSOMIA since 2021, following U. S. Defense Secretary Austin’s visit to the Philippines.
Senior defense, national security, and foreign affairs officials from the Philippines and the United States held a two-day convention in Washington, D. C. , on April 22 and 23.
The annual bilateral discussion on strategic security took place two weeks after U. S. President Biden and Philippine President Marcos Jr. met in Washington, D. C. and hold a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
At the height of the dialogue, both sides pledged to:
· Finalize the Bilateral Security Sector Assistance Roadmap (P-SSAR);
· Fully finalize the addition of sites and implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperative Agreement (EDCA), which will come with a $128 million investment by the Department of Defense in infrastructure as a component of the President’s FY 2025 budget;
· Pre-position USAID crisis aid for the Philippines’ civilian crisis response government at key EDCA sites;
· Expand multilateral cooperation with like-minded countries, adding maritime cooperation activities, bilateral and multilateral exercises, and coordination of security cooperation.
· Convene the first joint assembly of the U. S. -Philippines Science and Technology Agreement committee;
· Establish a Roles, Missions and Capabilities (RCM) Working Group for the Defense and Security Working Group;
· Establish inaugural bilateral dialogues on cyberdigitality and democracy; and
· Deepen collaboration to fight the manipulation of foreign information.
· Convene the Maritime Dialogue in September/October 2024 in Manila and build on the results of previous country dialogues and meetings;
· Explore new opportunities for global assistance for the enforcement of the foreign law of the sea;
· Deepen cooperation in efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, in accordance with applicable foreign legislation and voluntary guidelines; and Consider and develop, as appropriate, procedures and protocols on cooperative maritime law enforcement operations, in accordance with foreign law and our respective national laws.
Enter your search and press Enter.