India and the Philippines seek to sign an agreement on the BrahMos cruise missile during a planned summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Rodrigo Duterte next year, making the Southeast Asian country the first customer for the weapons system jointly developed by Nueva Delhi and Moscow. .
A team from BrahMos Aerospace, the New Delhi-based India-Russia joint venture that produces the weapons system, is expected to visit Manila in December to resolve some outstanding issues of the agreement to supply the missiles to the Philippines-based First Army. land. Missile system battery, people familiar with the developments said on condition of anonymity Thursday.
“The BrahMos team is expected to fix some issues and address some small issues so that the agreement can be signed during the next summit. Everything else has been resolved, ”said one of the people quoted above.
Although the dates for the summit between Modi and Duterte have yet to be defined, the meeting is expected to take place in February. Several other agreements are also expected to be signed during the meeting, including cooperation between India’s Central Medicines Control Organization (CDSCO) and its Philippine counterpart ICT and air rights, the people said.
India and the Philippines were initially expected to sign a defense cooperation and procurement agreement, which would have covered the BrahMos agreement, during the virtual meeting of the joint bilateral cooperation commission co-chaired by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart. , Teodoro Locsin Jr. on November 6.
However, the firm was unable to go ahead as planned due to a formality, the people said. “One of the signing authorities was not available and it was just a formality,” the person quoted above said.
The Hindustan Times first reported in December last year that the Philippines would become the first country to purchase the BrahMos cruise missile system. Although both parties were interested in finalizing an agreement earlier this year, the matter was affected by events related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Russia’s Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin also said on Thursday that India and Russia plan to gradually increase the range of the BrahMos and begin exporting the missile to “third countries, starting with the Philippines.”
The Philippine military focused on the BrahMos after extensive rehearsals and much of the negotiations revolved around the cost of the system and financing of the deal. The supersonic cruise missile with a range of about 500 km will equip the first battery of the Philippine Army’s land missile system, which was lifted and activated in October last year.
The Philippine Army expects this battery to be fully ready and all equipment purchased by 2024. According to plans, the battery will be fully capable of defending the Philippines against external threats by 2028.
However, some of the recent discussions have centered on India’s $ 100 million line of credit offered to the Philippines for defense purchases, particularly due to Manila’s perception that the amount should be increased, the people said. The Philippines side has also noted that India has offered larger lines of credit for defense equipment to other Southeast Asian countries, the people added.
India has been in talks with several countries, including Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, in recent years to sell them land and sea versions of the BrahMos. A team from BrahMos visited a state shipyard in Surabaya in 2018 to assess the installation of the missile on Indonesian warships.
In recent years, the Philippines has concluded several agreements with India for personal protective items or bulletproof equipment and armor for military vehicles. During Modi’s visit to the Philippines in 2017, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the defense and logistics industry to provide a framework for the development, production and procurement of defense hardware.
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