The Philippines on Thursday signed a contract worth about $ 370 million to procure the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles manufactured in India in collaboration with Russia.
Manila decided to procure the shore-based anti-ship version of the missiles made in India as the Southeast Asian nation moved to step up its defence capabilities in the face of growing belligerence of China. Moscow gave New Delhi its go-ahead to clinch the deal with Manila, even as Russia and China moved closer to each other even as the relations of both nations with the United States worsened over the past few weeks.
This is the first time that India will be exporting the missiles designed, developed and manufactured by the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, a joint venture of its Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOM) of Russia.
Atul Dinkar Rane, the director general of the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, signed the contract with Delfin Lorenzana, the Defence Secretary of the Government of the Philippines, to procure three batteries of the supersonic cruise missiles manufactured in India.
Shambhu S Kumaran, New Delhi’s envoy to Manila, was present in the signing ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Department of Defence of the Government of the Philippines at Quezon City in Manila.
The contract is an “important step forward” for implementation of the policy of the Government of India to promote “responsible defence exports,” according to an official press-release issued in New Delhi shortly after the contract was signed in Manila.
The deal is expected to give a boost to New Delhi’s endeavour to reach the target of exporting “Made-in-India” military hardware worth $ 5 billion by 2025.
The Philippines is bolstering its defence capabilities to counter China’s growing belligerence over the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
The delivery of the missiles is expected to start within a year, the Philippines News Agency (PNA) reported. “As the world's fastest supersonic cruise missiles, the BrahMos missiles will provide deterrence against any attempt to undermine our sovereignty and sovereign rights, especially in the West Philippine Sea,” Lorenzana was quoted by the PNA, the official news agency of the South-East Asian nation, on Thursday.
Manila officially refers to the eastern part of the South China Sea as the “West Philippine Sea” – a part of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the nation.
The South China Sea is a major waterway and the sea lanes in this region account for over US $ 5 trillion of international trade. It has been at the centre of a territorial conflict between China and many of its maritime neighbours, like Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Though an arbitral tribunal constituted under the 1982 United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) ruled in favour of the Philippines and rejected China’s expansive claims on South China Sea on July 12, 2016, Beijing has been steadfastly refusing to adhere to it.
New Delhi and Manila have been discussing the deal for export of the “Made-in-India” BrahMos missiles to the Philippines since 2017. President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, however, dilly-dallied on the deal, as it pursued a policy of warming up to China and moving away from the United States.
China’s belligerence against the Philippines and other nations staking claim on the South China Sea, however, continued to grow over the past few years. This forced the Duterte Government to review its policy and focus on stepping up defence capabilities of the nation, including by acquiring the BrahMos missiles, which is likely to provide the Armed Forces of the Philippines a deterrent against any aggressive move by China.
New Delhi was engaged in hectic negotiation with Manila over the past few months as it was keen to clinch the deal for exporting the “Made-in-India” missiles to the Philippines before the May 9 presidential polls in the South-East Asian nation as Duterte’s successor might again chose to put on hold plans to bolster the nation’s military capabilities in order to avoid irking China.
India has been trying to step up its defence cooperation with the South East Asian nations, particularly after China’s aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two nations resulted in a military stand-off, which started in April-May 2020 and could not be resolved completely so far.
The deal inked in Manila on Thursday covered delivery of the three batteries of the “Made-in-India” BrahMos missiles to the Philippines, training for operators and maintenance personnel as well as the necessary Integrated Logistics Support package, according to the PNA.
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