PH, Denmark eye defense ties upgrade, coast guard cooperation

Metro Manila, Philippines— The Philippines and Denmark are looking at upgrading defense and coast guard cooperation following the visit of Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in Manila on Monday, Dec. 9.

In a joint briefing, Rasmussen and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said they discussed the situation in the West Philippine Sea.

"This reaffirms our commitment to deepen our cooperation in various areas such as trade and investment, defense, green energy transition, maritime, green shipping, science and technology, health and people to people, things, we identified and agreed on the ways forward and powered through actions to advance concrete cooperation," said Manalo.

He said Denmark has been consistent in supporting the Philippine position in the West Philippine Sea.

"We discussed the possibility of cooperating further with Denmark on how we can increase greater awareness of the importance of abiding by international law, especially as agreed by by supporting a rules based international order, including, in our case, South China Sea, the UNCLOS," said Manalo.

"I also raised the hope that we could collaborate more on the maritime area, in terms of maritime security, in promoting international law, maritime law, cooperation of the economy, on the marine environment, biodiversity, as well as other issues such as marine disaster prevention. So these are other areas where we think we could cooperate, especially as it relates to the maritime area," he added.

The Danish minister said both sides are considering coast guard cooperation.

"We have certain competences and strengths, which is probably also needed in the Philippines in order to upgrade the necessary capacity, and that was the purpose of our discussion today. How can we develop greater defense in a concrete manner? Defense cooperation is about the Danish defense industry cooperating with the Philippine defense," said Rasmussen.