The Philippines and Australia have boosted their strategic ties following the signing of three memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on maritime and technology cooperation, and strengthening competition laws.

The signing was witnessed by President Marcos and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Thursday, Feb 29.

The MOU on enhanced maritime cooperation allows both countries to collaborate even more closely and promote their shared vision for the region, including civil maritime security, marine environment protection, maritime domain awareness, and respect for international law.

In their joint press conference, Prime Minister Albanese said the Philippines and Australia shall continue their maritime cooperative activities as regional partners committed to doing their part to sustain peace and stability in the region.

For his part, President Marcos said defense and security remain a key area of cooperation between the two strategic partners.

"We look forward to amplifying our joint activities and the capacity-building efforts in this regard," he said.

According to Albanese, both countries also signed an MOU that aims to strengthen cooperation on cyber and critical technology.

"We’ll work together to promote the open and secure use of cyberspace through a new MOU which we have signed today," he said.

Lastly, the competition commissions of both countries signed an MOU to enhance cooperation on competition law and policy. Albanese said this is a "highly relevant issue" in the Philippines and Australia given the cost of living pressures that the people are facing.

According to Marcos, the three agreements shall enhance information sharing, capability building, and interoperability between relevant government agencies in the maritime domain and maritime environment, cyber and critical technology, and competition law.

"The three agreements add to the more than 120 agreements that our two countries have signed through the decades," he said, noting that the two countries have agreements in defense cooperation, air services, education, research, scientific and cultural cooperation, among others.

"The Prime Minister and I both agreed to continue to look for ways to explore every option possible, to bring our countries closer than ever and collectively, with optimism and hopeful outlook, to be a force of good, unity, stability, and prosperity in our region," he added.

Enhancing strategic ties

Meanwhile, President Marcos his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Albanese centered on ways to maximize the enhanced status of relations between the Philippines and Australia. This includes defense, maritime cooperation, non-traditional security concerns, trade and investment, development cooperation, multilateral collaboration, and people-to-people linkages.

On economic cooperation, the President said they anticipate greater bilateral economic cooperation that will allow both countries to withstand shocks, be resilient against economic coercion, and provide an enabling environment for businesses and labor markets to further flourish.

"At the same time, we look forward to our robust people-to-people ties to drive greater cooperation between our two countries and our peoples," Marcos said.