The minister of the French Armed Forces will be coming to Manila to enhance the Philippines and France’s ties in the Indo-Pacific.
French Minister Sébastien Lecornu will visit the country on Saturday, Dec. 2, to engage in a high-level meeting and working lunch with Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.
"This visit follows the commitment by Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to enhance the strategic partnership between France and the Philippines," the French Embassy in Manila said Friday, Dec. 1.
Lecornu has been the French minister for its Armed Forces since May 2022 under the government of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Lecornu also holds the rank of reserve colonel in the National Gendarmerie, one of the two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police.
The French minister is also Officer of the Order of Agricultural Merit and Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, in recognition of his services as chairman of the Giverny Impressionist Museum; holder of a gold medal for his services to Overseas France; and Grand Officer of the Lebanese National Order of the Cedar and Commander of the Ordre de l’Etoile de Mohéli.
In November 2022, Manila and Paris agreed to "diversify" cooperation in the fields of defense and security, by sustaining their high-level interactions, education, training cooperation and various maritime-related exchanges.
The French embassy in Manila said the relations between the two countries in terms of military, among other areas, must be strengthened amid "crucial" times in the Indo-Pacific region.
Early in 2023, both countries conducted joint maneuvers in the South China Sea in a show of interoperability between the forces of the two distant countries.French Navy frigate FS Prairial (F731) and the Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessel BRP Capones (MRRV-4404) participated in a passing exercise (PASSEX) in the highly-contested water in March 2023.
The embassy said the exercise was "an excellent way to develop inter-allied interoperability as part of France’s multilateral approach in this region."