Philippines, Lithuania sign MOU on defense cooperation

MANILA, Philippines —  The Philippines yesterday inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on defense cooperation with Lithuania, an extra-regional additional partner to a shared endeavor of upholding international law.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and visiting Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovil? Šakalien? signed the MOU that provides a concrete framework for defense cooperation between the two countries’ defense establishments in the field of cybersecurity, defense industry, munitions production cooperation, addressing hybrid threats and maritime security.

Šakalien? is in the country for a four-day official visit, marking the first time a Lithuanian defense minister has visited the Philippines. According to her, the visit is “a clear sign of our deepening commitment to our bilateral and Indo-Pacific security cooperation.”

“This MOU is not symbolic, it’s a framework for a meaningful cooperation and we are really hoping that it will develop to a final plan that will provide us with a framework for further cooperation,” Šakalien? said following the signing of the MOU.

“Our strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific is laid out in our new strategy for defense and security engagement in this region, which was announced last month, and we already have some defense engagements with the Philippines,” she added.

Lithuania, Šakalien? said, sees a great potential for cooperation with the Philippines in many areas such as “maritime security, including challenges related to shadow fleets by some big countries, our neighbors operating in South China Sea and Baltic Sea and protection of our critical underwater infrastructure.”

For his part, Teodoro said the MOU will put into concrete terms their intended actions for “more advanced exchanges in a bigger scale in the years to come.”

“There is also a lot to learn from Lithuania in technology, in resilience, as the extensive topics that were stated by her excellency the minister earlier, and we look forward to deepening our ties with Lithuania,” Teodoro noted.