Philippines, UK open talks on visiting forces pact

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and the United Kingdom opened formal negotiations for a defense pact that would let British and Filipino troops train and operate on each other's soil. 

The talks which started Thursday, August 27 mark Manila's latest push to widen its web of military partnerships as it faces more frequent confrontations with Chinese vessels in the South China Sea. 

A Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) sets the terms for foreign troops entering the country for joint exercises, training and humanitarian missions, covering matters such as jurisdiction and entry procedures. 

The meeting marked the first formal negotiating round for the proposed Philippines-UK pact.

Salvador Melchon Mison Jr., defense undersecretary for acquisition and resource management, led the Philippine panel.  

Amy Senior, head of Indo-Pacific at the UK's Ministry of Defence, headed the British delegation.

"We appreciate UK's unqualified support as a like-minded partner in upholding the rules-based international order and preserving freedoms ensured by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," Mison said, in a statement shared by the Department of National Defense.

If concluded, the pact would make the UK the Philippines' second SOVFA partner in Europe, after France, which signed its own agreement with Manila in March. 

The Philippines already has VFAs or similar defense pacts with the United States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada.

Britain first proposed the pact in September 2025, when Minister of State for Defence Lord Vernon Coaker visited Manila and handed Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. a letter from UK Defence Secretary John Healey.  

The push for more defense partners comes as China Coast Guard patrols around Scarborough Shoal have surged this year.  

Philippine and Chinese forces clashed three times in a single week in July around the waters of the Scarborough and Ayungin shoals. 

China has continued to reject a 2016 international arbitration ruling that struck down its expansive claims over nearly the entire South China Sea.

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