The defense cooperation between the Philippines and Brazil is looking to grow deeper as both countries expressed intent to take it to a whole new level this year.
To start it off, Department of National Defense (DND) Officer in Charge Jose Faustino Jr. met with representatives from the Brazilian government headed by Ambassador Piragibe Tarragò, Special Envoy of Brazil to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Ambassador of Brazil to the Philippines Antonio J. M. de Souza e Silva, on Wednesday, July 20, at the DND Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
During the meeting, Faustino solicited Brazil's support for the ASEAN Outlook in the Indo-Pacific and welcomed the further development of bilateral cooperation between the two defense establishments.
He recalled Brazil's contributions to the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which include the successful acquisition and delivery of six units of Super Tucano aircraft from Embraer, a Brazilian company, in 2020.
Meanwhile, Tarragô said that defense "is one of the significant areas of cooperation" between the Philippines and Brazil.
He added that a high-level delegation from Brazil is slated to visit Manila within the year in line with the growing relations between the two nations.
He also invited Faustino to visit Brazil.
"Both sides expressed their intent to further develop the bilateral defense cooperation through the conduct of pilot training, the establishment of a bilateral defense dialogue mechanism, and the conclusion of a framework to facilitate logistics and defense industry cooperation," DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said.
"The two sides agreed on the importance of discussions to identify the mutual defense concerns between the Philippines and Brazil and highlighted that defense cooperation between the two countries should be a two-way street," he added.
Last June 29, the Philippines and Brazil signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MOU) on defense cooperation, the first bilateral defense agreement of the DND with a Latin American country.