With BrahMos missile delivery to Philippines, India sets out its arms stall for Southeast Asia

Walter Ladwig, a senior international-relations lecturer at King’s College London, called the missile sale a “very interesting development” given India’s traditional lack of a strong relationship with the Philippines.

India’s defence exports hit a record 210.8 billion rupees (US$2.5 billion) last financial year, up more than 32 per cent from 2022-23, with the Philippines’ BrahMos missiles accounting for the largest slice of the export pie. Delhi wants to export 350 billion rupees worth of arms and weaponry this financial year.

Ladwig characterised the arms deal with Manila as a continuation of Delhi’s existing policies, in some respects.

“India has provided assistance and training to Vietnam to help develop their fighter capabilities and repeatedly offered to assist with their Kilo submarine programme, all of which would be key assets for defending disputed territory from Chinese encroachment,” he said.

BrahMos cruise missiles are manufactured by Indo-Russian multinational defence company BrahMos Aerospace and can travel at a speed of 2.8 Mach – almost triple the speed of sound.

For the Philippines, acquiring the missiles is viewed as a significant step in deterring China’s increasing military presence and activities in the South China Sea.

“If India sells weapon systems to countries to help them defend from Chinese aggression, [and it] affects the bilateral relationship with China, that is on Beijing,” Ladwig said.

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Premesha Saha, a fellow with the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank’s strategic studies programme, said India’s sale of BrahMos to the Philippines was a step towards the South Asian nation emerging