By Robina Asido

Philippine and France defense chiefs eye negotiation for a status of visiting forces agreement as they signed a letter of intent in Taguig on Saturday.

After his bilateral meeting with French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said that they are working to get authorization from the respective heads of states of their country.

"We intend to take concrete steps into leveling up and making more comprehensive our defense cooperation principally by working to get authorization from our respective heads of state and relevant agencies to begin negotiations for a status of visiting forces agreement," he said.

Teodoro did not give a timeline for the negotiation and signing of the VFA but he expressed hope that it will be as fast as the process for the reciprocal access agreement (RAA) with Japan.

"We can't give a definite timeline because that is a matter for the heads of state to decide to get authorities from our respective heads of states to negotiate a status of VFA. In our experience in Japan it happened very rapidly so we hope that the same thing happens here," he said.

However, Teodoro noted that "without need of any agreement, we have also agreed to sustain if not further the visits and cooperation between the French Navy and the Philippine Navy."

"We also underscored the importance of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to our maritime operations that both countries have fealty and obey generally accepted principles of international law, both countries have independent foreign policies and we respect such," he said.

"We agree to work on shared values, shared cooperation not only in the South China Sea but also in the greater pacific area where France also has a presence and which we want to further the defense cooperation and presence with the other oceanic nations," he added.

Teodoro said they also agreed to "make more robust and more concrete steps for our defense cooperation, defense technology, industries, disaster risk reduction and resilience, intelligence exchange and information and assistance in non-traditional threats, cyber exchanges and enhancing defense and military cooperation and exchanges of people, training and exercises." DMS