France has expressed willingness to work with the Philippines on maritime security as its admiral for Asia-Pacific cited the importance of facing its related challenges.
Speaking aboard French destroyer Lorraine on a port call in Manila on Wednesday, Rear Admiral Geoffroy D’Andigné proposed that troops of both countries should train together to address not only maritime security but also humanitarian assistance and disaster relief response.
Lorraine’s port call and D’Andigné visit in Manila is to “level up our cooperation on interoperability with the Navy.”
Currently, France and the Philippines have achieved a lot of exchanges between their experts on anti-submarine warfare and defense tactics and technologies.
“And tomorrow, when we will go at sea we will have the opportunity to train together at sea with Philippine Navy,” he disclosed in a press conference. France is willing to work with its partners in the region, including the Philippines, as it wants to “promote the values of free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said.
One of the challenges the Philippines is facing is Chinese aggression over the South China Sea and its incursion into the Philippine waters.
While French Ambassador to the Philippines Michele Boccoz repeatedly supported Manila’s stance over the West Philippine Sea based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Ruling, D’Andigné distanced France from the dispute on the other hand.
“France does not in any way take part in territorial disputes, and supports, anytime, dialogue,” he said. “We are not involved in the dispute. We promote military training. So that’s the way we think, it’s the better way to solve [the issue].”
Lorraine’s port call in Manila is part of intended to “contribute to regional security by projecting assets from those islands in the region or coming from Europe,” the French Embassy in Manila said. She has been undergoing Long Duration Deployment (LDD) since April 3 before her commissioning to verify its military capabilities.
Lorraine has been “operating for several weeks now” in the Indo-Pacific, according to D’Andigné. But the French admiral clarified that their activity is “not provocative to anyone.”
