France air force mission includes PH for first time

AIR ALLIES France’s Rafale fighter (top) flies with the United States’ F-22 aircraft in Hawaii during a 2021 mission. —photo from France Ministry of Defense

MANILA, Philippines — A French Air Force mission touring the Indo-Pacific region will include the Philippines for the first time as France seeks to forge closer defense ties with Manila.

A contingent from the French Air and Space Force taking part in the Pegase 24 will stop over at Clark Air Base to demonstrate the European country’s commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight in the region, French Ambassador Marie Fontanel said on Sunday during the Bastille Day celebration in Manila.

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The Pegase 24 is a yearly French mission to the Indo-Pacific region meant to showcase air power projection. France will fly in two Rafale multi-role fighters, an A400M tactical lift aircraft and A330 aerial refueling and military transport aircraft during its Philippine visit.

“During the stopover, bilateral activities are expected to help build the foundations of air-to-air cooperation between the two countries,” the Department of National Defense said on Monday. France inaugurated a resident defense mission in Manila in June, months after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu committed to strengthen their bilateral defense ties.

Ongoing talks on pact

Both countries are also negotiating a defense pact to allow them to send military forces to each other’s territory for joint exercises.

On the sidelines of a forum commemorating the eighth anniversary of the 2016 arbitral ruling last week, Fontanel said they were eyeing to submit the first draft of a visiting forces agreement with Manila in September.

The Philippines currently has status-of-forces agreements with the United States, Australia and Japan.