South Korea has been among the key defense partners for the Philippines as Manila looks to boost its growing but still limited military capabilities. While the defense relationship between the two sides includes a wide range of areas – including visits, exchanges, and exercises – the aspect that unsurprisingly receives the most attention is defense equipment, whether it be in the form of deals for fighter jets or frigates, with some deals constituting among the top line items in ongoing Philippine defense modernization continuing under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
While the corvette deal itself remains unfinalized, the MOU sets the terms for potential agreement. Philippine Navy Chief Robert Empedrad, who witnessed the ship launch, told media outlets at a Philippine Marine Corps celebration on November 11that the MOU was basically ‘an understanding about how to implement the project once the budget is available for the corvettes.”
The two corvettes are expected to cost a total of 28 billion pesos, and there have been various suggestions made before about financing options including a government-to-government loan agreement.
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