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Raissa Robles

A visiting forces military deal to be signed between the Philippines and France has put the focus on “operational intimacy”, with observers noting that Paris has a presence in the Indo-Pacific and would serve Manila’s interests well in the contested waters of the South China Sea.
The term was coined by French Ambassador to Manila Marie Fontanel, during a freewheeling discussion on Tuesday at her residence.
In a bid to balance the implications of the alliance – a first for the Philippines with a European power – Fontanel also said while her country was a United States ally, it would steer clear of a “US-China confrontation”.
Addressing the Status of Forces Visiting Agreement (Sofva), she quipped: “With the French, you always wish for intimacy anyway. The Sovfa negotiations are now in its final stage and [the signing] may happen in the first semester of the year.”
The Philippines is also exploring similar pacts with the United Kingdom and Germany.
The first round of Sofva negotiations took place in Paris early last year and the second round months later in Manila. According to the Philippines’ Department of National Defence assistant secretary for international affairs Marita Yoro, “Sofva is crucial in establishing a clear legal framework to support joint military activities”.

Fontanel also stressed that while France was “clearly an ally with the US … we don’t want to be trapped into the US-China confrontation”.
Responding to a question from This Week in Asia, she said: “We continue to have a discussion and dialogue with China.
“And so we continue engaging and it’s a difficult discussion obviously on many aspects. We disagree on many aspects. But we continue to discuss, to have room for dialogue because it’s a constant position that we have that we should try to continue having an open discussion [with China].”
The deal with the Philippines will be France’s second such agreement in Asia, after it forged a Status of Forces Agreement with Singapore in 1998. A similar deal was still in the works with Japan, Fontanel said.
The Philippines, for its part, has similar active pacts with four other countries. Its arrangement with Australia came into effect in 2012, and with New Zealand and Canada last year, as well as a Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan also last year. All these allow the temporary presence of foreign troops during joint or multilateral combat drills and humanitarian activities.
The only Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that is quite extensive and different from all the other active pacts is the one with the US.
The VFA with the US, which came into force in 1999, now allows the rotational presence of American troops all year round inside nine Philippine military facilities, thanks to a rider called the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, which came into effect in 2016.

‘Spear’s tip’
Last October, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr underscored the importance of the Sofva with France, saying the country was “at the spearhead of current threats to the international order”, referring to Manila’s long-standing feud with Beijing over maritime territory.
“The more convergence of like-minded countries [like France] at the spear’s tip, the better,” he told the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
Fontanel on Tuesday said for its part, Paris had always emphasised “the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific” through which much of global trade passes.
Analysts told This Week in Asia that France was supportive of the Philippines’ defence goals.
“As one of the world’s respected naval powers and a pillar for freedom of navigation, Paris has been helping Manila attain a muscular defence arsenal,” said Chester Cabalza, founding president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila.
While France was geographically far from Southeast Asia, Cabalza pointed out that the European country “has territories in the Indo-Pacific region that make it one with the Philippines”.


The independent French think tank, Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique, asserts France’s right to be present in the Indo-Pacific because “France is an Indo-Pacific country, owing to its overseas territories and it's over 1.6 million French nationals living there”, as well as the fact that more than 90 per cent of its exclusive economic zone lies in the Indo-Pacific.
It counts seven territories including Reunion, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Clipperton Island, Walis and Futuna in the Pacific Ocean.
“France isn’t as far away as we think,” Don McLain Gill, a lecturer at the Department of International Studies in De La Salle University in Manila, told This Week in Asia.
“It has a permanent military presence in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the Western Indian Ocean and the South Pacific.”
Gill pointed to France’s other assets, such as having a “good track record in supporting partner countries’ self-reliance goals in defence” and being an “important capacity builder” in maritime-related challenges.

Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr assumed office in 2022, relations with France have progressed at a fast clip.
The December 2023 visit of French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu led to the signing of a letter of intent to strengthen defence relations.
A year later, Paris formally opened a defence attache office for Manila and Micronesia and sent its first resident defence attache, navy Captain Stephan Litzler.
Fontanel said all these were offshoots of bilateral exchanges between former Philippine president Benigno Aquino III and his French counterpart Francois Hollande in 2014-15.
The “very positive trend” stopped when Rodrigo Duterte became president in 2016, but Fontanel said Paris hoped Marcos could visit this year and that the French embassy was focused on deepening defence ties for the rest of Marcos’ term.


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Philippines, France near defence pact to boost ‘operational intimacy’ in contested waters

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French Ambassador to the Philippines, Marie Fontanel, during the discussion on Tuesday. Photo: Raissa Robles

French Ambassador to the Philippines Marie Fontanel (left) with Brigadier General Guillaume Thomas, French Air Defence and Operations Command, at Clark airbase in the Philippines in July 2024. Photo: AFP

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The visiting forces deal comes on top of similar pacts with other nations and could help the Philippines attain a ‘muscular defence arsenal’


The visiting forces deal comes on top of similar pacts with other nations and could help the Philippines attain a ‘muscular defence arsenal’.


Philippines, France near defence pact to boost ‘operational intimacy’ in contested waters

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The visiting forces deal comes on top of similar pacts with other nations and could help the Philippines attain a ‘muscular defence arsenal’

The visiting forces deal comes on top of similar pacts with other nations and could help the Philippines attain a ‘muscular defence arsenal’