Philippines, Canada sign mutual logistics support arrangement

The Philippines and Canada on Friday (Manila time) signed a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement (MLSA) to boost military cooperation and interoperability between the two countries.

It was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty during Teodoro’s visit to Ottawa.

“I'm pleased to announce that today, Secretary Teodoro and I have just signed a statement of intent to strengthen defense cooperation between Canada and the Philippines,” McGuinty said at a press conference in Canada.

“And as part of that commitment, we also signed a mutual logistics support arrangement, which will allow our countries to provide logistical support to one another during important military exercises, training activities, and operations,” he added.

According to McGuinty, the new agreements build on the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) signed by the two countries in Manila in November 2025.

“And as Canada's first such agreement in the Indo-Pacific, the SOVFA will allow our armed forces to train, exercise, and operate together more effectively once it enters into force,” he added.

McGuinty said the agreements would improve trust, interoperability, and preparedness between the two militaries amid an increasingly complex security environment in the Indo-Pacific.

“As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal ruling, Canada will continue working alongside the Philippines and ASEAN partners to promote respect for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” McGuinty said.

For his part, Teodoro said the arrangement gives operational support to the SOVFA and serves as another step toward a stronger defense relationship between the two countries.

“We need to underpin our strong and robust ties for more economic activities, for more secure people-to-people exchanges, for more effective interaction between both our countries. And we need this in order to uphold being maritime countries, the all-ever-important UNCLOS,” Teodoro said.

“We are coming on the 10th anniversary of the arbitral award which the Philippines won and which had as a guiding precept that UNCLOS reigns supreme when it comes to determining maritime rights and particularly for the Philippines, archipelagic rights and the definition and the limitation of an archipelagic country,” he added. — RSJ, GMA News