Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. FRANCES MANGOSING/蜜桃工作室
The Department of National Defense (DND) is open to intelligence sharing with China鈥檚 military but joint anti-terror exercisers will have to wait, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Monday.
Lorenzana said intelligence sharing with the Chinese can be done 鈥渋mmediately鈥� because there was an existing military agreement on the issue between Manila and Beijing but there was none for joint military exercises.
鈥淚ntelligence sharing can be done immediately. We have a military-to-military agreement which covers visitation of students..an exchange of students from our schools to their schools and trips of our officials to there and back,鈥� Lorenzana said.
鈥淭he exercises will need an enabling law or agreement, like our visiting forces agreement with the US and Australia, so that they can stay here for an extended period for two weeks or one month to exercise with us and we in their area also,鈥� he said.
鈥淪o, that will still take a long time鈥ot in the near future maybe,鈥� the defense chief added.
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua on Thursday said China and the Philippines should share intelligence and hold joint military exercises due to the threat of terrorism in the region.
鈥淚 think it is very important for the two militaries to exchange best practices, share intelligence, and even consider the possibility of having joint training exercises because the objective is clear,鈥� Zhao said.
鈥淚t is in the interest of not only China and the Philippines but also in the region, for us to deal effectively with the threat of terrorism,鈥� he added.
However, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in May said the Philippines cannot yet forge a visiting forces agreement (VFA) with China because of the dispute over the West Philippine Sea.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to have a VFA with a country that鈥檚 claiming your territory and your maritime zones. How can you have naval exercises in West Philippine Sea if you are doing it with a country that鈥檚 claiming that West Philippine Sea?鈥� Carpio said.
鈥淣ormal relations can continue but there are other matters that we cannot do, like we cannot have a visiting forces agreement with them,鈥� he added.聽JE