The Philippines will become the latest nation to sign a defence pact with Australia on Sunday, as the Prime Minister prepares to welcome US President Donald Trump back to the world stage after a chastening midterm election result .
Anthony Albanese touched down in Manila on Saturday afternoon following his attendance at the COP31 climate summit co-hosted by Türkiye, and will visit Australian troops currently docked in Manila on HMAS Stalwart on Sunday.
It's understood the agreement between Canberra and the government of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr will include enhanced maritime awareness, information-sharing, and interoperability between fleets.
Australia’s relationship with the Philippines has deepened over the last decade, after the government led by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed Manila’s victory in a 2016 legal battle over the disputed Scarborough shoal with China.
The Marcos government in 2022, elected just weeks after the Albanese government came to power, has looked to improve the country’s maritime and military capability, with a strategic partnership established between the two countries in 2023.
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“We've got our surveillance aircraft flying out of Philippines bases, and we need that access, it's a really important thing for us,” Ian Hall, a professor of international relations at Griffith University, told SBS News.
Over the last three years, Australia has taken part in 12 joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea to enforce the nation’s maritime interests in the disputed region, with four in the last year.
The most recent mission took place in August, with Australia contributing HMAS Supply, an MH-60R Seahawk chopper and a RAAF P-8A surveillance aircraft.
Around the same time as the most recent joint patrol, satellite imagery revealed construction work on new installation in the Paracels archipelago, where analysts suspect China is building its largest military base, according to Reuters.
In October, the newswire published updated imagery showing the construction of a runway on the archipelago’s Antelope reef.
Australia’s involvement in the ‘freedom of navigation’ missions has frequently proven a flashpoint with China.
A string of incidents in recent years, some of which have involved the unsafe release of flares, have led Canberra to accuse People's Liberation Army aircraft of unsafe and unprofessional behaviour on multiple occasions.
Next year, the Philippines will host Australian forces for Exercise Alon, training for amphibious landing operations.
The Prime Minister’s summit schedule will see him meet with ASEAN leaders on Monday, before attending the Quad leaders summit with Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, India’s Naradendra Modi and Trump.
The White House has confirmed Trump will meet with China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss nuclear-non proliferation on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen later next week.
