Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. conducted a five-day official state visit to India from August 4 to 8, including stops in New Delhi and Bengaluru. The trip—Marcos’ first to India since taking office in 2022—held significant symbolic value, with this year marking the seventy-fifth year of diplomatic relations between India and the Philippines. The visit also achieved important substantive outcomes, including the launch of the India-Philippines strategic partnership, which signals deepening regional alignment to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific amid growing geopolitical tensions. The new partnership catapults the India-Philippines relationship to new heights, heralding expanded cooperation on security, economy, and emerging technology, as well as New Delhi’s broader intent to develop closer ties to ASEAN countries.
Historical Trajectory
India and the Philippines established formal diplomatic ties in 1949 and signed a Treaty of Friendship in 1952. However, as the Cold War took shape, the countries’ diverging geopolitical orientations impeded growth in the bilateral relationship. While India adopted a policy of “non-alignment,” the Philippines associated with the United States, signing a mutual defense treaty in 1951. Following the Cold War, relations slowly strengthened, mostly through trade and engagement with ASEAN. In fact, between 1993 and 2003, India-ASEAN trade grew at an annual rate of 11 percent, from under USD $3 billion to over USD $12 billion. India’s main exports to ASEAN countries included pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, and organic chemicals, while India primarily imported mineral fuels and electrical machinery from ASEAN.
The new partnership catapults the India-Philippines relationship to new heights, heralding expanded cooperation on security, economy, and emerging technology, as well as New Delhi’s broader intent to develop closer ties to ASEAN countries.
In 1995, India became a full dialogue partner of ASEAN, actualizing Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s “Look East” vision that sought closer collaboration with Southeast Asia on trade, defense, and people-to-people ties. This novel policy orientation set the stage for growth in the India-Philippines relationship during the 2000s. In 2004, the first India-Philippines Security Dialogue was held in Manila and in 2007 the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation was created to institutionalize and guide India-Philippines relations through strategic dialogue and regular meetings. In the same time period, India began interacting with the Philippines and other regional countries through participation in multilateral fora, like the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit.
Soon after taking office in 2014, PM Narendra Modi announced the “Act East” policy, intensifying India’s commitment to proactive engagement with ASEAN countries. With fresh political impetus, bilateral relations with the Philippines grew apace. In his first term, the Indian leader and President Rodrigo Duterte met twice on the sidelines of ASEAN engagements in 2017 and 2018—once in Manila and once in New Delhi. These high-level engagements set the tone for deepening bilateral ties across a number of areas in the following years.
Strategic Alignment and Security Cooperation
Security cooperation represents the foundation of the decade-long growth in India-Philippines ties. The two nations share a stated strategic interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, and both have faced challenges with regional aggression in recent years. The relationship made historic strides in 2022 when the Philippines became the first international buyer of the Indo-Russian BrahMos missile system, purchasing three batteries of the shore-based anti-ship variant. Just before Marcos’ state visit, India and the Philippines conducted joint naval exercises in the South China Sea for the first time, signaling deepening strategic alignment. Announcing the joint maritime drills, Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Harsh Kumar Jain remarked that this action “symbolizes our shared commitment to the freedom of navigation and a free, open, and rules-based Indo-Pacific region,” reinforcing the logic of growing security cooperation.
During the recent visit, Marcos and Modi announced the launch of the India-Philippines strategic partnership, further elevating the relationship. India became the Philippines’ fifth strategic partner, alongside Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The announcement was accompanied by a five-year Plan of Action (2025-2029) to guide the future trajectory of cooperation. The plan calls for greater security coordination through a range of activities, including dialogue mechanisms, joint training, defense co-development and co-production, and intelligence sharing. Marcos noted that both countries “have high stakes in the future of [the] Indo-Pacific region,” reiterating the overarching logic of India-Philippines strategic alignment, and hinted that the Philippines would look to acquire more BrahMos missiles from India in the near future.
Economic Ties
Beyond security cooperation, Marcos foregrounded the economic relationship during his visit, participating in a CEO Roundtable in New Delhi and the Philippines-India Business Forum 2025 in Bengaluru. At the roundtable discussion, Marcos said that the two countries were taking steps to reach a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to reduce economic barriers and spur bilateral commerce. The main topic of discussion included collaboration to boost bilateral trade, building on the existing suite of trade agreements with ASEAN. Currently, pharmaceuticals constitute India’s main export to the Philippines, while the Philippines primary exports to India include gems and minerals. During the official meetings, officials discussed the diversification of bilateral trade into new sectors—the Indian side reportedly pushed for greater market access for Indian agricultural products.
The potential for trade with India has been bolstered by Marcos’ domestic policy—since becoming president in 2022, he has implemented various reforms since his presidency to improve the business environment in the Philippines and boost investment in clean energy and technology, including a 2024 tax reform law to incentivize foreign investment. In line with this agenda, Marcos leveraged commercial engagements during the visit to invite major infrastructure investments from Indian firms, including the Delhi-based conglomerate GMR Group.
To complement the formal trading relationship, both countries took notable steps to improve connectivity and boost tourism during Marcos’ visit. India and the Philippines eased visa requirements for tourists, with India granting free “e-visas to Filipino tourists [in] a reciprocal move following the Philippines’ decision to grant visa-free entry to Indian nationals.” There will also be new direct flights from Delhi to Manila commencing later this year, significant to “enhance regional connectivity.”
Marcos said that the two countries were taking steps to reach a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to reduce economic barriers and spur bilateral commerce.
Space and Emerging Technology
In addition to security and trade, Marcos and Modi discussed a number of different areas of cooperation such as science and technology, culture and arts, law enforcement, and space, inking a total of thirteen agreements across various sectors. Among these, space and digital stood out. The two countries explored avenues for space cooperation, including technology for remote sensing and satellite development to use during natural disasters and in the agricultural sector. Their respective space agencies also signed a Statement of Intent to collaborate on “Peaceful uses of Outer Space,” reflecting India’s ambition to expand its international space cooperation in the wake of landmark collaborations with NASA. Founded in 2019 as one of the world’s newest space organizations, the Philippines Space Agency stands to benefit enormously from India’s extensive space expertise.
Digital and emerging technologies were also a critical point of discussion during the week-long trip. During the state visit, President Marcos Jr. and Prime Minister Modi signed an MoU to bolster digital infrastructure and digital governance cooperation between the two countries. The joint statement indicated that emerging threats to the cyber domain and communications infrastructure would be a target of bilateral efforts. Furthermore, during an August 6 speech, Marcos reiterated the importance of cooperation in the technology sphere amidst the rise of artificial intelligence.
The Future of India-Philippines Ties
There are various avenues for continued future India-Philippines cooperation. Currently, the backbone of the relationship is defense cooperation, especially maritime security coordination and the growing weapons trade. Within this realm, both countries should push for regular joint naval patrols and deepen defense industry ties through co-production partnerships, not just arms sales. However, apart from defense and security, greater economic and technological cooperation is critical to solidify and sustain the relationship. In the technology and innovation domain, India and the Philippines should collaborate on digital public infrastructure for economic transformation—an area of Indian expertise—and the application of emerging technologies to diverse set of pressing issues, like cybersecurity and climate change. The two countries already appear well on their way to a trade agreement, but the governments should accelerate proactive efforts to spur private investments and increase the stakes of the bilateral economic relationship.
India and the Philippines could face geopolitical headwinds as they look to forge a deeper partnership. The logic underpinning the past decade of India-Philippines security cooperation—particularly on the preservation of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region—rests on mutual anxieties about the rise of China and relates to geopolitical narratives about U.S.-led efforts to contain China in a new era of great power competition. The primary security concerns of India and Philippines vis-à-vis China—along the Himalayan border and in the South China Sea, respectively—are unlikely to disappear altogether, but each government should remain attuned to the possibility that a rapidly evolving global political landscape, particularly among the U.S.-India-China triangle, could undercut those older assumptions. In the face of these risks, a more expansive relationship that goes beyond security could prove critical to the resilience of India-Philippines ties.
Views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of South Asian Voices, the Stimson Center, or our supporters.
Also Read: The Intensification of India-Philippines Defense Engagement
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Image 1: Narendra Modi via X
Image 2: Narendra Modi via X
