India's top diplomat in the Philippines believes that Manila and New Delhi are now entering into the "best and most substantive" phase of their diplomatic relationship with more cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Shambhu Kumaran led on Wednesday the reception for alumni of Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), which he said proves the "powerful strand in this wide-ranging and mutually beneficial people centric partnership." In fact, Kumaran said, the Philippines has been an important ITEC partner over the years. "The Philippines is now allotted 65 ITEC slots annually. Over 1,000 Philippine nationals have participated in a range of disciplines such as Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Technologies, Engineering and Technology, Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Trade, Election, Pharmaceuticals, Auditing and many more," he said. ITEC is India's flagship development partnership initiative for capacity building and human resource development in partner countries. Every year, around 300 different civilian and defense courses are offered in nearly 100 "premier Indian training centers." Kumaran said the two countries are now "witnessing more and varied, as well as deeper and meaningful engagement between our countries." This is because of the economic and trade ties, the close political dialogue, the growing defense and security partnership, and  the culture, education and people-to-people interaction the two countries have.