France taking sides with Philippines vis-a-vis China

MANILA – Enter France as the latest Western power to side with the Philippines in its bubbling dispute with China in the South China Sea.

While this year’s US-Philippine Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) joint military exercises are notable for their sheer size with over 17,000 participating troops, state-of-the-art missile system tests and drills provocatively near Taiwan, France’s presence at the war games has been less noticed.

The French Navy’s flagship warship, Vendemiaire, sailed alongside Philippine and US counterparts – the Philippine Navy’s BRP Davao del Sur (LD-602) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) and the US Navy’s USS Harpers Ferry – as part of the multilateral maritime exercise (MME) under Balikatan Exercises 2024.

At the same time, France announced that it will soon kickstart high-stakes negotiations for a Visiting Forces Agreement-style deal with the Philippines to regularize and expand joint drills in the near future.

Moreover, the European power is also offering advanced weapons systems, including a potential multi-billion submarine deal, amid the Philippines’ massive military modernization program.

Although a US treaty ally, the Philippines is proactively diversifying its defense relations by cultivating ties with a wide network of partners from the Indo-Pacific to Europe to enhance its strategic autonomy and build up its laggard maritime security capabilities.

The US remains the Philippines’ leading defense partner and its only treaty ally. Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden reiterated Washington’s commitment to come to the Philippines’ rescue in the event of a conflict in the South China Sea under the terms of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr recently