(22 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Manila, Philippines – 22 August 2025
1. Various of Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. signing joint statement of intent to further boost defense cooperation
2. Cutaway of press photographing Marles and Teodoro
3. Various of Marles and Teodoro showing signed document
4. Wide of Marles and Teodoro walking on stage
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Marles, Australian Defense Minister.
”Today we have as you have just seen also signed a statement of intent to pursue a defense cooperation agreement that we will seek to sign this time next year. This will be a really be an important step forward in terms of our defense relationship that builds in the 1995 memorandum of understanding between our two countries, it will encapsulate the totality of our engagement in defense.”
6. Cutaway of Marles and Teodoro
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Marles, Australian Defense Minister.
”We work really closely with the Philippines in terms of asserting the rule-based order in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea and that is really important for us to jointly do. We understand that in that work there will be interaction between defense forces.
8. Cutaway of Marles and Teodoro listening to question
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gilberto Teodoro Jr.,Philippine Defense Secretary.
“The activities of China in any area weather in the Sierra Madre (at Second Thomas Shoal) or any area under their nebulous claims are a matter of not only of concern but of condemnation because these are in grossed violation of international law and it is actually a product of a false narrative.”
10. Marles and Teodoro shaking hands
STORYLINE:
The Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and his visiting Australian counterpart, Richard Marles signed a joint statement of intent to further boost defense cooperation between the two nations.
This signing of the joint statement comes after the latest flare-out of the long-seething territorial disputes in the Second Thomas Shoal.
A Philippine military report said that Beijing had deployed several coast guard and suspected militia ships, along with a swarm of speedboats, some fitted with high-caliber machine guns and backed by a helicopter and a drone, closer to a Philippine warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has served as Manila’s territorial outpost in Second Thomas.
A Chinese boat came as close as 50 meters (164 feet) to the Sierra Madre, and two boatloads of Filipino forces were deployed from the ship to prevent the Chinese from coming closer, Philippine military officials said.
In a joint news conference after the signing, Teodoro said that China’s actions and its “nebulous” territorial claims in the disputed waters “are a matter not only of concern, but of condemnation because these are gross violations of international law.”
Marles said that Australia is working closely with the Philippines in terms of asserting the rules-based order in the South China Sea and that during this work there will be an “interaction between defense forces.”
Marles is visiting while Australian forces engage in their largest combat exercises with the Philippine military, involving more than 3,600 military personnel in live-fire drills and battle maneuvers.
China has raised alarm over such combat exercises in or near the disputed waters, which it claims almost in its entirety.
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/3ca606534cda45aaaba9e5468d3551f6
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in August 27, 2025, 12:07 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
