Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 1) – The French government underscored the need to uphold the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region and avoid any activities that will lead to confrontation, as it eyes an upgrade in defense cooperation with the Philippines.
“I said many times our approach is non-confrontational and I think that is also the Filipino approach because also geographically and politically we have to find a certain way to move forward without confrontation as far as we’re concerned,” outgoing French Ambassador to the Philippines Michèle Boccoz told CNN Philippines.
The French envoy said while they are ready to explore all channels of dialogues in the region, they also acknowledged the importance of maintaining presence in the region to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight will not be hampered.
“This year, we had the state-of-the-art French Navy destroyer “Lorraine” coming over the Philippines and we have another frigate that came in the region, and we have several of our ships coming in and we are planning for future deployment here over the next few years,” Boccoz said,
The French government is also actively participating in military exercises, including the recent ones with the United States and Japan.
“We had a number of bilateral meetings with people in military and authorities in different sectors looking at how to strengthen our dialogues, to be more present and to be more active together,” she said.
The French envoy also supports the goal of the Defense Department to build a credible defense posture.
“There’s a lot more we can do together; this has been increasing over the last few years. There is cooperation in terms of capacity building, in terms of exchanges between armed forces, we have regular officers from the navy, from the army, from the Armed Forces of the Philippines were coming over to France,” she added.
Upgrading bilateral defense cooperation ‘possible’, submarine offer already made
Boccoz said the bilateral defense cooperation agreement between the Philippines and France can be upgraded.
“We have indeed thought of upgrade, we could discuss a fuller kind of agreement… we’re considering,” she added.
France and the Philippines signed a defense cooperation agreement in 2021.
The agreement aims to promote bilateral defense cooperation relating to defense equipment, logistics and the defense industry.
The ambassador also gave an update on France’s proposal to supply submarines to the Philippines and help the country develop its submarine force.
“There are ongoing discussions about our submarine forces. An offer has been made by France which has been first considered and it’s been asked to update the offer which has been done February or March and so of course we are very keen to work with the Philippines,” Boccoz added.
“But there many other areas where we have a lot of competence, on the air force of course, with the army, we also have many technical capacities in terms of radar surveillance, in terms of new technology in the war game and so on and we have regular exchanges between our armies on that and also private companies that are providing that kind of equipment,” the French ambassador said.
