PH, Denmark eye greater cooperation between coast guards

SUPPORT FROM MARITIME NATION Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen leaves the BRP Cabra following an inspection of the ship during his visit to the headquarters of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Monday. Denmark’s top diplomat describes his peninsular country as “small,” but a “big maritime nation.” He said Denmark is looking at ways to boost the PCG’s capacity. —Richard A. Reyes

MANILA, Philippines — Manila and Copenhagen are looking into possible coast guard-to-coast guard cooperation, according to Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, who met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen on Monday for a bilateral meeting.

Rasmussen’s visit to the Philippines marks the first time in 25 years that a Danish foreign minister traveled to the country for a high-level engagement.

In a press conference in Makati City, Manalo said he and his counterpart reaffirmed their commitment to deepen partnerships in various areas, including trade and investment, defense, green energy transition, maritime green shipping science and technology, health, and people-to-people links.

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“We identified and agreed on the ways forward and follow through [on] action to advance cooperation, including the areas of reskilling and upskilling Filipino seafarers, accelerated development and deployment of renewable energy resources, and possible coast guard-to-coast guard engagement,” he said.

Rasmussen, for his part, said they talked about the Danish “defense industry cooperating with Filipino defense.”

“We discussed—but that is premature to conclude on—if there could be a possibility of coast guard-to-coast guard cooperation between the Philippines and Denmark,” he said.

They also tackled various regional issues, including concerns in the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Their discussion also touched on the possibility of cooperating on how they could increase awareness on the importance of abiding by international law and international rules-based order.

“I also raised the hope that we could collaborate more on the maritime area, in terms of maritime security, promoting international maritime law, cooperation … on the marine environment, biodiversity, as well as other issues,” Manalo said.

Rasmussen also visited the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) headquarters in Manila, where he was briefed on the situation in the WPS. He also boarded the BRP Cabra, one of the patrol ships frequently deployed to those waters.

His visit came a week after Chinese navy and coast guard ships harassed Philippine vessels at two contested shoals in the WPS.

“I’m here to witness firsthand the challenges linked to the Philippines upholding her own territory and to listen about, you know, incidents with the China Coast Guard [and] what we can do about all this,” Rasmussen told reporters.

He said Denmark was looking at ways to boost the capacity of the PCG, such as training and modernization.

“Basically [we discussed] two things. One is about the capacity; what is the capacity of the coast guard, [and] what can be done to improve that? Of course, it’s a total disbalance toward China,” Rasmussen told reporters.