West PH Sea: Canada close to visiting forces deal with Philippines

This handout photo taken and released on January 19, 2024 by the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND) shows Canada’s Ambassador to the Philippines David Bruce Hartman (2L) and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro (2R) during a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation between the two countries, at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Metro Manila. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

MANILA, Philippines — Canada and the Philippines are in the final stages of negotiating a pact to allow them to deploy troops on each other’s soil, the Canadian envoy to Manila said Sunday.

Manila already has similar visiting forces agreements with the United States and Japan, and is also in talks with France and New Zealand in the face of China’s growing assertion of claims to the West Philippine Sea Sea.

“We are in the final stages of negotiating the agreement which will enable us to have deeper cooperation and more substantive participation in training to build capacity,” Canada’s ambassador to Manila, David Hartman, said in a statement to AFP.

READ: Talks on PH-Canada defense pact in final stages

“We are hopeful that the signing and ratification of the agreement by both governments can be expected before the end of 2025,” he added.

Canadian officials held discussions last month with counterparts from the Philippine defense and foreign departments, he said.

Hartman said the agreement would allow for future participation by Canadian troops in large-scale joint military exercises held every year between the Philippines and the United States.

READ: Canada holds first joint patrol with PH, Japan, US in SCS

The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to a request for comment by AFP.

The Canadian navy has taken part in recent months in several patrols in the South China Sea with the US, Australia, the Philippines and Japan to assert freedom of navigation and flights in a strategic waterway claimed almost in whole by Beijing.