VISITOR FROM SEOUL President Aquino (right) listens as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak speaks during Monday’s joint news conference in Malacañang. Lee is in Manila for a three-day state visit. The two countries signed a total of five agreements during the meeting. JOAN BONDOC
President Benigno Aquino III on Monday asked visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for aircraft, boats and other hardware to help boost the country’s military, amid rising tensions with China over the Spratly Islands.
Mr. Aquino said he and Lee discussed their respective regional security concerns, which for the Philippines was the situation in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), where China has been accused of bullying.
“On defense cooperation, I expressed to President Lee the interest of the Philippines to gain some specific defense articles such as military-grade helicopters, boats and aircraft,” Mr. Aquino said in a joint news conference.
“This is in consonance with the upgrading and modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he added.
Lee did not disclose any response to the specific request but said South Korea wanted to cooperate with the Philippines to resolve its maritime problems.
Concessional loans
“We agreed that we will continue to work together so that we can peacefully resolve this issue according to international rule, norms and standards,” said Lee, who is on a three-day visit to the Philippines.
During the visit, South Korea signed an agreement to provide soft loans of up to $500 million to the Philippines.
The concessional loans would come from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund and disbursed through the Export-Import Bank of Korea from this year until 2013, the two countries said.
The two sides also agreed to cooperate in energy and agricultural projects, including the possible construction of a power plant in Subic Bay, a former US naval base, using environment-friendly technology.
Korea’s Export-Import Bank will also provide financial assistance to one of the Philippines’ priority irrigation projects to help the Southeast Asian country, one of the world’s biggest rice buyers in recent years, to meet a target of being self-sufficient in its national staple by 2013.
Mr. Aquino told Lee he was pleased that the number of Koreans visiting the Philippines was steadily increasing.
“This is a clear indication of the pleasant and comfortable living and working environment in the Philippines, which our government is constantly striving to improve,” he said.
South Korea is the Philippines’ fifth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $6.8 billion in 2010, and is the third top investor last year with investments of $691 million.
Upgrading capability
On Saturday, China said the Spratlys issue should be resolved directly among related sovereign countries through “friendly consultation and negotiation” after a week of US pressure to resolve the territorial dispute.
Mr. Aquino this year began upgrading the Philippines’ military, which is one of the weakest in the region with its Navy made up of mostly World War II-era ships and its Air Force consisting of Vietnam War-vintage planes.
He has said the Philippines needs to be able to defend its claims to waters and islands of the West Philippine Sea, amid rising tensions with China.
China and Taiwan claim the strategic waterway in its entirety, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have claims to parts of the area that is believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits.
The Philippines has accused the Chinese military of aggressive acts in the Philippine-claimed areas of the sea this year, including firing on Filipino fishermen, laying buoys and harassing an oil exploration vessel. With reports from AFP, Reuters and Christine O. Avendaño
Originally posted: 2:22 pm | Monday, November 21st, 2011