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MANILA: Canada and the Philippines, both staunch critics of China’s increasingly coercive actions in the disputed South China Sea, were to sign a key defense agreement on Sunday that would allow their forces to hold joint battle-readiness drills and expand a web of security alliances to deter aggression, Philippine officials said.
Canada and other Western nations have been bolstering their military presence in the Indo-Pacific to help promote the rule of law and expand trade and investment in the region. The moves dovetail with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s efforts to build defense ties with other countries to help his country’s underfunded military face a militarily superior China in the disputed waters.
There was no immediate comment from China, which has accused the Philippines of being a “troublemaker” and a “saboteur of regional stability” for staging joint patrols and combat drills with the United States and other countries in the South China Sea. Beijing claims the waterway, a major trade route, virtually in its entirety despite a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated those claims based on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
China has dismissed the ruling and continues to defy it. It has employed powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers against Philippine coast guard and fisheries vessels in the disputed waters. resulting in minor collisions and injuries to Filipino personnel. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-simmering territorial disputes.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. would sign the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with his Canadian counterpart, David McGuinty, after a meeting in Manila on Sunday, the Department of National Defense in Manila said. The agreement takes effect after ratification.
Such agreements provide a legal framework for temporary visits by foreign troops with their weapons and large-scale combat exercises in either territory of the signatory countries.
The Philippines signed the first such defense pact with its longtime treaty ally, the United States, in 1998, followed by a similar accord with Australia nine years later. The agreement with Canada would be the third signed under Marcos after similar ones with Japan and New Zealand.
Talks are ongoing with France and Singapore for similar agreements. Efforts are also underway to launch similar negotiations with the United Kingdom and possibly with Germany and India, Teodoro and other officials said.
Teodoro renewed his criticisms of China’s actions in the South China Sea in an annual meeting of defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with Asian and Western counterparts on Saturday in Malaysia. He condemned a recent announcement by China that it would establish a “nature reserve” in the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing area claimed by Manila and Beijing.
“This, to us, is a veiled attempt to wield military might and the threat for use of force, undermining the rights of smaller countries and their citizens who rely on the bounty of these waters,” Teodoro said.
Canada criticized China’s plan when it was announced in September, saying it opposes “attempts to use environmental protection as a way to take control” of Scarborough. When Chinese ships tried to forcibly drive away Philippine vessels in the shoal, also in September, Canada expressed concern, criticizing “China’s dangerous use of water cannons,” which injured a civilian Filipino fisheries officer during the Scarborough face-off.
Canadian Ambassador to Manila David Hartman has said his country has “been vocal in confronting the provocative and unlawful actions of the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea” and “will continue to do so.”
Last year, Canada signed an agreement on defense cooperation with the Philippines. Another agreement signed in Ottawa in 2023 gave the Philippines access to data from Canada’s “Dark Vessel Detection System,” which harnesses satellite technology to track illegal vessels even if they switch off their location-transmitting devices.
The Philippine coast guard has used the high-tech Canadian technology to track Chinese coast guard ships and fishing vessels in the South China Sea.

A Ukrainian drone attack damaged and set ablaze a tanker and infrastructure at a major oil terminal in Russia’s key Black Sea port of Tuapse overnight, authorities in the southern region of Krasnodar said on Sunday.
The attack on the southern outlet for Russia’s crude and refined products came a day after traders told Reuters shipments from the seaport would rise in November, threatening knock-on effects for export flows.
“In the port of Tuapse, fragments of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fell on an oil tanker, damaging the deck superstructure,” the administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
“A fire broke out on the vessel. The crew were evacuated.”
The port is home to the Tuapse Black Sea oil terminal and a Rosneft-controlled oil refinery, which Ukraine has targeted with several drone strikes this year.
It was not immediately known if the terminal was operating after the attack, which the administration said damaged its buildings and other infrastructure.
Unofficial Russian and Ukrainian Telegram news channels posted images that appeared to show a terminal and a tanker ablaze at night, reporting several fires burning in the port’s vicinity. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine and the scale of the attack was not clear.
Kyiv has stepped up its strikes on Russian refineries, depots and pipelines in recent months to strain fuel supplies, disrupt military logistics and raise wartime costs, a campaign it calls retaliation for Russian attacks on its power grid.
Falling drone debris also damaged an apartment building in the village of Sosnovyi, just outside Tuapse. No injuries were reported though the railway station in Tuapse suffered some minor damage, the regional administration said.