The Philippines will be getting more military equipment from India, according to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., citing their affordability and quality.
“We are in fact ordering more equipment and weapon systems from India,” Brawner said in an ambush interview aboard the naval tanker INS Shakti (A-57) on Thursday night, when asked on whether the AFP is planning to acquire more equipment from India.
Brawner added that Indian equipment, while of high quality, is not as expensive as those from other countries.
“Kaya’t maganda na maki-partner talaga tayo sa India (That’s why it’s good for us to partner with India),” he said.
The AFP chief did not specify what military equipment it would be procuring from India due to security reasons.
Brawner, however, said India is still in the process of delivering the BrahMos cruise missile systems ordered by the Philippines.
“Meron pa ho tayong dalawang sets ng BrahMos systems na darating in the next few years (We still have two sets of BrahMos systems that will arrive in the next few years),” Brawner said.
Former Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and BrahMos Aerospace director general Atul Dinkar Rane signed the contract for three BrahMos cruise system batteries worth PHP18.9 billion in a virtual ceremony in January 2022.
A battery usually consists of three to six launchers along with monitoring and tracking components, as well as logistics support vehicles.
The first BrahMos batteries were delivered in April last year, but the Department of National Defense and the AFP have yet to issue any updates regarding its status.
West PH Sea
In the same interview, Brawner said the Philippine Navy (PN) will conduct a bilateral maritime cooperative activity with Indian Navy ships in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) next week.The activitiy will coincide with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s visit to India on Aug. 4 to 8.
“So next week, habang (nandun) pa sa India ang ating Pangulo ay magkakaroon tayo ng bilateral maritime cooperative activity with India. So ‘yung ating PN at itong tatlong barko ng India ay magse-sail. We will sail together doon sa WPS (By next week, while the President is in India, we will have a bilateral maritime cooperative activity with India. The PN and three Indian ships will sail together to the WPS),” he said.
Brawner said the activity is not a show of force but a “show of unity” and “show of solidarity” among like-minded countries that value a free and open Indo-Pacific Region.
“The joint activity will be the first of its kind in the West Philippine Sea — a region increasingly central to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Brawner said in a statement on Friday.
Earlier this week, three ships of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet — the guided-missile destroyer INS Mysore (D-60), the anti-submarine corvette INS Kiltan (D-30), and the naval tanker INS Shakti — arrived in Manila for a port visit.
In his statement, Brawner said the presence of the INS Shakti in Manila sends a “powerful signal of solidarity, strength in partnership, and the energy of cooperation between two vibrant democracies in the Indo-Pacific.”
He lauded the deepening defense ties between the two nations and reaffirmed the shared commitment to maritime security, regional stability, and a rules-based international order in one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive regions.
SOURCE: PNA
