Philippines, Australia sign new pact streamlining security cooperation
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines and Australia inked a new defense pact on Sunday, deepening security ties between the two nations that have pushed back against China’s coerciveness in the South China Sea.
The Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), signed in Manila, updates a 1995 memorandum of understanding and creates what the Philippines and Australia outlined in an August 2026 statement as a “contemporary bilateral defense framework” as the two allies seek to deepen their alliance.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the defense accord “streamlines the coordination process” between the nations militarily and could open the door for Manila to access Australian equipment.
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“The existing memoranda are fragmented,” he told reporters in Filipino. “So now, it’s all consolidated into one, and the coordinative mechanisms have also been streamlined so the work gets done faster.”
“Rather than 100 steps to do a single thing, it will just now take 10. And it will be more purposive and not ad hoc,” he added.
The Philippines has sought to deepen its defense partnerships beyond its traditional ally, the United States, forging closer ties with western nations and regional allies as it confronts growing Chinese assertiveness across disputed reefs and shoals in the West Philippine Sea–the term Manila calls for its western waters that Beijing claims under its sweeping nine-dash line.
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Australia has been one of Manila’s closest allies in the region. In 2007, the two nations forged a visiting forces agreement allowing their troops to hold joint exercises in each other’s territories. The pact came into force in 2012.
Teodoro said the DCA will ramp up joint maritime drills in the West Philippine Sea and could broaden cooperation into joint air and ground force exercises, including humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
“It will bolster our credible deterrence posture in areas where we have jurisdiction,” he said. /dl
