Transcript of Special briefing by MEA on State Visit of President of Philippines to India (August 05, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
August 05, 2025
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this special press briefing on the ongoing state visit of the President of Philippines. We have with us, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri P. Kumaran, to brief us on the state visit. We also have with us Ambassador of India to the Philippines, Shri Harsh Jain, as also Additional Secretary (South) who looks after Philippines in the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Prashant Agarwal.
With that, I invite Secretary Sir to make his opening remarks, and thereafter, we'll take questions. But as a note of guidance, please restrict your questions to the visit. With that, Sir, the floor is yours.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you, Randhir. Good afternoon, friends from media. I extend all of you a warm welcome and thank you for joining us today for this special briefing on the state visit of the President of the Republic of the Philippines, His Excellency Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., to India. The visit commenced yesterday and will go on till 8th of August 2025. This is the first visit of President Marcos to India in his official capacity. The visit is significant as it comes as we mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Philippines in 1949.
During this visit, both Prime Minister Modi and President Marcos have agreed to elevate the India-Philippines bilateral cooperation to the level of strategic partnership aimed at furthering our engagements across a vast number of sectors, including political cooperation, defense, security and maritime cooperation, trade and investment cooperation, healthcare and pharma, cooperation in science and technology, space, connectivity, digital economy, fintech, consular matters, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, and closer cooperation on regional, multilateral, and international issues of mutual interest. We have also adopted a plan of action for the period 2025 - 29 to guide our cooperation under the elevated strategic partnership.
President Marcos is accompanied by the First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and a high-power delegation comprising 14 ministers, senior officials, and a large business delegation. On his arrival in Delhi, he was accorded a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning. This was followed by a visit to Rajghat, where the President paid respects to Mahatma Gandhi.
President Marcos then held wide-ranging and productive bilateral talks with the Prime Minister, initially in the restricted format and then in the full delegation format. The Prime Minister also hosted a lunch for him. President Marcos will be meeting Rashtrapatiji during this visit later today. The Honorable Rashtrapatiji will also be hosting a banquet in honor of President Marcos. The External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, also called on President Marcos yesterday.
Several Agreements / MOUs were concluded and exchanged during the visit. There were 14 of them. These include Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal Matters; a Treaty on Transfer of Sentenced Persons; Terms of Reference on Negotiations for the India-Philippines Preferential Trade Agreement; Terms of Reference for Service Staff Talks of Army, Air Force, and Navy; Enhanced Cooperation between Coast Guards; Statement of Intent on Cooperation in Space; Cultural Exchange Program; a Program of Cooperation in Science and Technology; an MOU for Cooperation in Digital Technologies; and an Implementation Program for Tourist Cooperation.
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Modi and President Marcos also jointly issued a commemorative stamp themed on the national flowers, lotus for India, and sampaguita, a variety of jasmine on the Philippines side.
We are happy that direct flight connectivity between India and the Philippines is likely to be operationalized in the coming months. India has announced gratis e-tourist visa for Philippines nationals. The Philippines has made visa-free entry possible for Indian tourists up to a period of 14 days. We expect that these measures would bolster our tourism exchanges, commercial linkages, and people-to-people interactions. During the bilateral talks, both the leaders took note of our growing defense collaboration, and agreed to strengthen it further.
They also appreciated the steady increase in bilateral trade, which is currently at about $3.3 billion, and welcomed the signing of the terms of reference on negotiations for an India-Philippines PTA today towards enhanced trade and goods ... in addition to also working together on expediting the AITIGA review.
They also welcomed the presence of Indian investments in the Philippines, $5 billion in all if you take into account investments routed through third countries, but about $1.2 billion if you are only talking about direct investments from India into the Philippines. These are mostly in the area of IT, IT-enabled services, healthcare, agriculture, textiles, FMCG, and chemical sectors.
It was also noted that India is a top exporter of pharmaceutical products to the Philippines. The leaders welcomed progress in cooperation in the agriculture sector, particularly rice research. Since the last visit of the Prime Minister to the Philippines in November 2017, the International Rice Research Institute, South Asia Regional Centre in Varanasi, established in December 2018, developed an ultra-low glycemic rice variety, the first batch of which has been presented to the Philippines President in Manila in October 2023 at the 6th International Rice Congress.
We have also invited Philippines participation at the Information Fusion Centre, IOR, for maritime domain awareness. The cooperation between India and Philippines in the area of maritime domain awareness and maritime security is progressing well. Four Indian ships have recently concluded their visits to the Philippines for maritime cooperative activities, and a demonstration of India's hydrographic capabilities.
Cooperation between India and the Philippines in the area of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, HADR, and also Search and Rescue, SAR, including as demonstrated in recent incidents off the coast of Kochi and the Gulf of Aden, is an important aspect of our cooperation.
Prime Minister Modi and President Marcos also discussed development cooperation between the two countries and reiterated their commitment to strengthening it further.
India is implementing six quick impact projects under the MOU on Indian grant assistance for QIPs signed in 2023. Furthermore, over a thousand Filipino officials have been trained in India under our ITEC capacity building programs since 2014-15.
The leaders also agreed to enhance our cooperation in the area of digital and financial technologies as I mentioned earlier. India would be assisting the Philippines towards development of a sovereign data cloud through a pilot project. In addition, the two countries would continue to explore avenues in the area of Digital Public Infrastructure. You would be happy to learn that the Philippines unique identifier system PhilSys which covers over 86 million Filipinos utilizes the MOSIP platform incubated at IIIT Bangalore.
We are also exploring cooperation for the linking of payment systems. So, this is basically what I had for my initial remarks. We would be happy to take questions.
Thank you.
Huma Siddiqui, Strat News Global: Sir, I am Huma Siddiqui from Strat News Global. I have two questions. You talked about defense cooperation in space.
So, in defense was a BrahMos and Akash missiles discussed; and in Space what exactly is the cooperation about?
Ajay Banerjee, the Tribune: Sir, Ajay Banerjee from the Tribune, this side. The Chief of the Philippines Armed Forces three days ago in an interview said that we are discussing more arms ... to take more arms from India. He mentioned that the BrahMos two units are to be given this year or next year; and also further he mentioned specifics that how more equipment is being taken. Was that brought up by the Philippine President during the meeting?
Rishikesh, PTI: Sir, Rishikesh from PTI. So, at any point of time, did the two leaders exchange their views on Trump's trade and tariff policy as both the countries have been impacted by their unjustified policy?
Rishabh, Times Now: Sir, good evening. Rishabh from Times Now. Sir, I just wanted to understand when both the leaders said that there is a TOR, terms of reference on discussions; and cooperation on air, naval as well as army, what are the TORs that have been discussed? and what is the future plan between the two countries? Will it only be limited to joint exercises or there would be further enhancement in partnership as well?
Kunal Dutt, PTI: Sir, Kunal Dutt here from PTI. Two quick questions. The ties have been elevated to strategic level with an action plan for five years.
So, what are the thrust areas and defense perhaps being the high points of this narrative and roadmap? Will we be seeing any defense deals in the coming years?
And secondly, sir, this meeting is taking place between the two leaders just two days after a bilateral naval exercise in Manila. But there are reports that the exercise has also taken place in the waters of the South China Sea. So, if you could that. Thank you.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you. Let me start with defense cooperation. Yes, there was a discussion on defense cooperation.
President Marcos thanked the Prime Minister for cooperation in the area of defense industry, the export of defense platforms to India, including the BrahMos. He also called for greater cooperation in the area of defense industry.
I will also try and answer the other question about terms of reference for services cooperation. In addition, as part of our broader defense cooperation, we were talking about capacity building, joint exercises or joint cooperative maritime activities, exchange of training programs between our officials and all standard elements that we talk about when it comes to defense cooperation.
Arms and equipment from India, of course, we talk about more opportunities for India to export our defense platforms. I think that we have indeed exported a number of defense hardware platforms to many, many countries and Philippines certainly showed interest in working with us for exploring opportunities for more defense platforms.
We are also talking about ship visits, cooperation as part of multilateral formats. One of the ships, four ships that went to Philippines in the last few days was a hydrography ship, which also demonstrated our capabilities in hydrography. We are also talking about enhanced cooperation between our coast guards.
So, basically aimed at sharing best practices, enhancing maritime domain awareness in both sides, talking about enhancing interoperability, working together to enhance our disaster response readiness in the coming years and so on. So, all these areas will be discussed as part of services to services cooperation, and the terms of reference obviously reflect all of these.
Space is another area. In fact, what we did was to highlight our capabilities in space and the cost effectiveness of our space program. President Marcos said he had indeed studied how cost effective our space program is, and they wanted to try and use some of our space technology, space capabilities to effect social transformation, in terms of helping predict weather events, helping with agriculture, helping with disaster relief, etc. So, those are areas which are of interest.
Naturally, we will be talking in terms of helping with launching Philippine satellites, helping them develop satellites, etc. All of these are on the table in terms of possibilities for cooperation.
On Trump tariffs, there was no discussion on the tariffs imposed by the US on India or any other country. There was a broad discussion on the motivations to try and diversify trade, expand the range of our products for trading between India and the Philippines, and also to identify specific areas that can feed into a potential Preferential Trade Agreement between India and the Philippines.
The Philippines also supported our request to expedite the AITIGA trade review, which we hope will conclude before the end of the year. And I think I have covered everything.
Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Sir, thank you, Keshav Padmanabhan from ThePrint. My question is with regards to the joint naval exercises that India and the Philippines held. We have seen a reaction come from yesterday, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which says the Philippines is trying to get a third country involved in the South China Sea. Today, the foreign ministry spokesperson has also put out saying that no third-party intervention will be acceptable in the South China Sea.
So, clearly, these exercises have irritated China without them naming India directly. Could you tell us whether this sort of was discussed between the two leaders, and what is India's reaction to the joint exercises?
Ileana, TASS News Agency: Good afternoon. Ileana from TASS News Agency. The program of the visit is quite rich, as we have seen. Can we expect that the President will visit the BrahMos Aerospace Limited joint venture in New Delhi, and meet the head of the company?
As we know, these joint exercises are between militaries of both countries. Will they use these BrahMos missiles in joint drills? As we know, these missiles are in service in both countries, in the army of both countries. Thank you.
Madhurendra, News Nation: Sir Madhurendra, main News Nation se. Brahmos ke alava jaisa ki aap batla rahe the ki anya platforms ko lekar bhi charcha hui jo Philippines interested hai Bharat se lene ke bare mein. Woh platforms kon hain jin par charcha hui aur aage sambhavi deal, is sambandh mein kya hogi.
Mera dusra sawal South China Sea ko lekar bhi hai jahan par abhi abhi conclude hua hai India aur Philippines ka naval exercise. Is tarah ke exercise ko lekar China bar bar jo hai objection create karta raha hai. Lekin Bharat ka stand bilkul clear raha hai to kya jo China ek bar fir se object kar raha hai us par hum koi reply dena chahenge.
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Sir, Madhurendra, I am from News Nation. Apart from BrahMos, as you were mentioning, there was also discussion on other platforms that the Philippines is interested in procuring from India. Which platforms were discussed, and what is the possibility of a future deal in this regard?
My second question is about the South China Sea, where a naval exercise between India and the Philippines has just concluded. China has repeatedly raised objections to such exercises. However, India's stance has been very clear. So, if China is once again raising objections, would we like to issue any response to that?
Sridhar, the Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle: Sir, Sridhar here from the Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle. I have two quick questions. One is that the Philippines President today thanked India for its support for the 2016 award.
But there was no reference to it in PM Modi's speech. Normally, in the earlier joint statements that we used to issue, we used to specifically state that we support the Philippines on this issue. So, what exactly is India's stand on this?
And also, our strategy, the naval exercises in South China Sea has clearly upset China. So, this is our policy and also in alignment with the Western policy in the Indo-Pacific. But then we see that we are also under increasing pressure from the West on the trade issue.
So, at the risk of annoying China, what exactly is our policy, strategic versus trade?
Niraj Kumar, News18 India: Sir, Niraj hoon News18 India se. Direct flight ke bare mein aapne bataya ki aane wale mahino mein iski shuruat hogi. Kab tak ummid kar sakte hain kyunki dono deshon ne free visa ka fesla kiya hai ek dusre deshon ke paryatako ke liye.
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] I'm Niraj from News18 India. You mentioned about the direct flight — that it will be starting in the coming months. By when can we expect it to begin, especially since both countries have decided to offer free visas to each other's tourists?
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Let me start with South China sea question.
Our position on the South China Sea is clear and consistent. We consider the South China Sea as a part of global commons, and we support freedom of navigation, overflight in the region and legitimate commerce through the waters of the South China Sea. India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region.
And our position is based on the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas, UNCLOS 1982. India also believes that any difference between the parties concerned should be resolved peacefully by respecting the legal and diplomatic processes, and without resorting to the threat or use of force.
We have also said that the discussions on the Code of Conduct should be effective and should be expedited. Any Code of Conduct that comes out of these discussions should be effective and substantive, and it should also take into account the interests of the parties which are not part of the COC negotiations.
PM himself had said in his joint statement that: hum antharashtriya kanoono ke anuroop Freedom of Navigation ka samarthan karte hain.
[Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi]: we support freedom of navigation in accordance with international laws.
So that broadly sums up our policy there. You would find that in the joint statement there is indeed a formulation that will come out on our position on the South China Sea. I would request you to wait until the joint statement is issued.
I don't think the President of Philippines is visiting the BrahMos production facility in Bangalore, ... in Delhi. He is not visiting the BrahMos facility.
There was a question on what other platforms were being discussed. You know, Philippines is a country of about 7,600 islands. Their defense concept is about archipelagic defense. So, their defense doctrine and all the platforms that are of interest to them as part of this archipelagic defense concept would be of interest to them. Without going into details about what platforms are of interest, I can tell you that some of our platforms are definitely of interest to them, given their own security challenges, and their own assessment of their defense needs.
Aapne flights ke bare mein pucha ... one of you. Hame lag raha hai ki Air India ka flight abhi shuru hoga before the end of the year, possibly in October sometime. Inaugural flight. First of October.
And, further discussions abhi bhi chal rahe hain about further destinations and possible variations in how we can expand the scope of our bilateral air services agreement. Hopefully, aur bhi destinations add honge but initially Delhi Manila wala flight add ho raha hai.
[Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi] One of you asked about the flights. We believe that Air India's flight will start before the end of the year, possibly sometime in October — the inaugural flight, likely on the 1st of October. Further discussions are still ongoing regarding additional destinations and possible variations in how we can expand the scope of our bilateral air services agreement. Hopefully, more destinations will be added, but initially, a Delhi-Manila flight is being added.
Neeraj Dubey, Prabha Sakshi: Sir, namaskar main Neeraj Dubey Prabha Sakshi se. Sir, Philippines ko riyayati line of credit dene ki baat bhi chal rahi thi kya us par koi charcha hui hai?
Aur pradhan mantri ji ne apne sambodhan mein quick impact projects ki sankhya badhane ki baat kahi hai. Abhi aapne bataya ki che chal rahe hain, toh ye kitne aur badhaye jayenge aur kon se chetron mein sir?
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Sir, namaskar. I'm Neeraj Dubey from Prabha Sakshi. Sir, there was also talk of extending a concessional line of credit to the Philippines — has there been any discussion on that?
And the Prime Minister, in his address, spoke about increasing the number of quick impact projects. You just mentioned that six are currently underway — so by how many will this number be increased, and in which sectors, sir?
Rezaul Hasan Laskar, Hindustan Times: Rezaul from Hindustan Times. I was just wondering if we could get some details on how the two sides plan to ramp up trade, whether any specific areas have been identified for trade, and if we could get any more details on the preferential trade agreement that is being planned.
Shailesh, National Defense: Thank you for this opportunity, sir. Sir, I am Shailesh from National Defense. Sir, to be specific, China has termed India and Philippines maritime exercise as gesture politics.
Since we have raised our partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership, since China doesn't accept the UNCLOS verdict, how do we see, would there be some structured partnership, there could be some other members in future, if we have raised this partnership? How do we see this? Because they say it's just a gesture politics.
Anuvesh Rath, ZEE Media: Namaskar sir, mera naam Anuvesh Rath hai. Mai Zee Media se hu. Sir, mera sawal weapons deal ko lekar hi hai ki Brahmos ke sivay koi aisi aur facilities specifically ... kyunki India ka target hai 2029 tak humko 50,000 crores ka export defense mein karna hai. Toh usko leke humne already dekha hai ki hum is is side of the continent mein hum log export kar rahe hain, Brahmos ka hum kar chuke hain. Aur koi platform aur specifically koi delegation kya kahin pe ja rahi hai jaise ki MDL ya dusre jagahon pe jahan pe weapons ke trials ya dusre cheeze ki ja sakti hain?
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Namaskar sir, my name is Anuvesh Rath. I'm from Zee Media. Sir, my question is also related to the weapons deal — apart from BrahMos, are there any other such facilities? Specifically, because India has set a target to achieve ₹50,000 crores in defense exports by 2029. In that context, we have already seen that we are exporting to this side of the continent — we have already done so with BrahMos. Are there any other platforms? And specifically, is any delegation being sent anywhere such as MDL?; or other locations where weapons trials or other related activities could be conducted?
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Okay. Cooperation in the area of development partnership. We are indeed undertaking a number of small projects, community development projects which we call QIPs, quick impact projects. We've done six of them recently, and I think the plan is to try and expand it to do more in the coming years.
In fact, there is also a discussion ongoing in terms of supporting large infrastructure projects in the Philippines. The President indeed mentioned this to the Prime Minister and said they are developing a number of regional airports. They are developing a large set of railway networks in the three island groups of the Philippines, and invited Indian investment and partnership in developing infrastructure all over the Philippines. So, we would be seriously getting involved in infrastructure development projects and considering participation in them.
In terms of areas that we are looking at as part of our trade discussions, I think Rezaul asked that. We are looking for more market access for our agricultural products. I understand grapes and potatoes are a priority. Philippines has some special technology for growing seaweeds. In the coming years, I believe we are also interested in growing seaweeds as a possible source of nutrition.
There are expectations to try and open up services. India is offering oil and gas consultancy. There is potential for greater cooperation in developing biofuels. Philippines also has a large oil import bill and therefore they are interested in working with India to develop biofuels. There is interest in renewables and green hydrogen. The Philippines also invited investments from India in developing upstream oil and gas assets.
We have been going through discussions for cooperation in developing submarine infrastructure in the Philippines, training facilities, helping them with ship design and naval modernization, etc. We are also talking about working with the Philippines in the area of cyber security. I spoke already about the scope for linking the payment systems on both sides.
We also discussed and thanked each other for support at international fora, various candidatures, etc. I also mentioned earlier about cooperation in the area of agriculture, particularly rice research.
There was a focused discussion on cooperation in the field of health care, particularly India's strengths in pharmaceuticals, traditional medicine. There was also a talk of yoga and wellness initiatives from India and offering support to the Philippines.
There was also a discussion about expanding the scope of ITEC capacity building programs and ICCR scholarships for Filipino youngsters. Digital health platforms ... and PM also explained to President Marcos about the Janaushadhi system for low-cost distribution of generic medicines. These were broadly the areas that I wanted to mention about.
President Marcos in general spoke of India as a key partner for modernizing their armed forces. It was also suggested that the current trade level of USD 3.3 billion is not small, but there is scope for building it up to a much higher level. Prime Minister called for carrying the private sectors on both sides with the governments. He suggested that we should work on action-oriented outcomes and identify timelines and a need to focus on specific sectors, where we can cooperate.
We are talking about involving youth in joint programs. The Prime Minister actually suggested that we should try and involve the youth on both sides in a joint hackathon if we can, so that we can develop technological solutions for mutual social benefit on both sides.
The Prime Minister also offered for India to share the Gati Shakti platform for coordinated infrastructure development and to let the Philippines benefit from what we have learned in developing this platform.
President Marcos supported India on the issue of terrorism. The Prime Minister thanked him for the consistent support that the Philippines has offered India.
President Marcos also thanked India for permitting the export of non-Basmati rice to the Philippines over the last couple of years, which they said was particularly useful given the bad crop output in the years of concern.
There was also talk about enhancing the number of tourists, particularly since the year 2025 is the ASEAN-India year of tourism.
President Marcos also spoke about cooperation in waste management and benefiting from India's experience and technologies in this area. That's largely about it. Anything else that we missed out on?
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: I think that we covered the areas comprehensively. Over and above, the declaration on the Strategic Partnership is available on the website, so please have a look.
We also have other announcements and MOUs, the list of it, which is available to you on the website.
So, with that, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the close of this special briefing. Thank you very much.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you very much.
New Delhi
August 05, 2025
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