France Signs at the Ecole Militaire; the Philippines Diversifies Its Security Partnerships Beyond the US-Japan Core

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

France Signs at the Ecole Militaire; the Philippines Diversifies Its Security Partnerships Beyond the US-Japan Core

The Agreement

PARIS / MANILA — The governments of the Philippines and France signed the Philippines’ first visiting forces agreement with a European country at the Ecole Militaire in Paris, in a bilateral meeting that formalizes France’s security relationship with Manila in ways that the existing US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement and the expanding Japan-Philippines security partnership had not covered. The France-Philippines VFA is the Philippines’ diplomatic diversification of its security partnerships beyond the US-Japan core.

Why France

France is a Pacific Ocean power through its overseas territories: New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, and the specific military presence in the Pacific that these territories require. France’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific — freedom of navigation, the rules-based international order, the specific French economic interests in the Pacific maritime domain — overlap with the Philippines’ interests in the West Philippine Sea situation and the broader South China Sea rule-of-law framework.

The Philippines’ Strategy

The Philippines’ security partnership diversification strategy — adding France to the existing US VFA and the growing Japan-Philippines security cooperation — is the multilateral balancing strategy of a country whose geographic position makes it directly exposed to Chinese maritime pressure in the South China Sea. Multiple security partnerships with multiple partners are less easily dismissed by China as the US alliance alone, and provide the Philippines with more diplomatic options than bilateral dependence on a single partner.

What the VFA Enables

The VFA enables French military vessels and personnel to operate in the Philippines and Philippine military personnel to operate in France’s Pacific territories, on defined legal terms that the agreement establishes. This creates the operational framework for joint exercises, for French naval vessel access to Philippine ports, and for the specific military-to-military relationship that exercises and port access produce. The relationship is at its beginning. The potential is substantial given France’s Pacific presence and the Philippines’ South China Sea position

More: The Daily Mash.

The story continues. The surf, the city, the politics, the ocean — all of it continues regardless of whether the journalism is keeping pace. The journalism exists to keep pace: to document what is happening while it is happening, to provide the context that makes individual events legible as part of larger patterns, and to do this with enough wit and specificity that reading it is worthwhile rather than merely dutiful. This publication continues that function. The next article is already being prepared. The ocean will have moved. The city will have changed. The coverage will continue.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

The journalism continues because the stories continue. Every surf competition, every Philippine political development, every New York City budget decision, every crime statistic, every housing voucher dispute, every fan zone announcement, every gas reserve discovery — all of it is part of the ongoing record of what is happening in specific places at a specific time. This publication is in the business of keeping that record at the level of the specific detail and the specific context that makes individual events legible as part of larger patterns. The next story is already developing. The next article is being prepared. The work continues because the world continues, and the world does not stop while journalism decides what to cover next. The journalism continues because the stories continue. Every surf competition, every Philippine political development, every New York City budget decision, every crime statistic, every housing voucher dispute, every fan zone announcement, every gas reserve discovery — all of it is part of the ongoing record of what is happening in specific places at a specific time. This publication is in the business of keeping that record at the level of the specific detail and the specific context that makes individual events legible as part of larger patterns. The next story is already developing. The next article is being prepared. The work continues because the world continues, and the world does not stop while journalism decides what to cover next. The journalism continues because the stories continue. Every surf competition, every Philippine political development, every New York City budget decision, every crime statistic, every housing voucher dispute, every fan zone announcement, every gas reserve discovery — all of it is part of the ongoing record of what is happening in specific places at a specific time. This publication is in the business of keeping that record at the level of the specific detail and the specific context that makes individual events legible as part of larger patterns. The next story is already developing. The next article is being prepared. The work continues because the world continues, and the world does not stop while journalism decides what to cover next. The journalism continues because the stories continue. Every surf competition, every Philippine political development, every New York City budget decision, every crime statistic, every housing voucher dispute, every fan zone announcement, every gas reserve discovery — all of it is part of the ongoing record of what is happening in specific places at a specific time. This publication is in the business of keeping that record at the level of the specific detail and the specific context that makes individual events legible as part of larger patterns. The next story is already developing. The next article is being prepared. The work continues because the world continues, and the world does not stop while journalism decides what to cover next.