On Friday 21 July 2017, the Griffith Asia Institute was delighted to participate in an Australia-Philippines dialogue facilitated by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Republic of the Philippines, held at De La Salle University\u2019s Yuchengco Center. This inaugural dialogue built on and extended discussions on the bilateral relationship that took place in July 2016, during a GAI and FSI-sponsored conference on security in the South China Sea region.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s dialogue discussed the topic of \u2018Enhancing the Philippine-Australia Comprehensive Partnership in a Changing Regional Environment\u2019 and ways to broaden and deepen the bilateral relationship given the substantial progress made in recent years. It focused on the Comprehensive Partnership agreement Australia and the Philippines concluded in 2015, which recognized 70 years of friendship between the two countries, as well as growing trade and investment, and the growing numbers of Filipinos and Australians travelling between them. Under that agreement, Australia and the Philippines promised to work together to strength the architecture necessary for regional security and to deepen the economic relationship, which has improved markedly in the context of the ASEAN\u2011Australia\u2011New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) that came into force in 2010. It also signalled intent to extend defence cooperation and to work together on transnational crime, and to continue Australia\u2019s efforts to aid the economic and social development of the Philippines. Last but not least, the agreement created a biennial ministerial meeting, involving the respective foreign and defence ministers, as a focal point for furthering bilateral ties across all these areas.<\/p>\n
On the Australian side, our dialogue this year heard papers on aspects of the Australia-Philippines relationship from Ian Hall, acting GAI Director, GAI member Michael Heazle, Lowell Bautista of the School of Law at the University of Wollongong, and Ben Schreer, Head of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University. On the Philippines side, the contributors included Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby from De La Salle University, Josef T Yap from the University of the Philippines, Mary Fides Quintos from the FSI, and Colonel Francis Alaurin of the Philippines Airforce.<\/p>\n
GAI is most grateful to all involved for a lively, frank, and productive meeting, especially to its Deputy Director, Julio S Amador III, as well as to the Yuchengco Center at De La Salle University, and our generous host, Dr Trinidad Osteria. GAI would also like to thank the Hon. Millicent Cruz-Paredes, Assistant Secretary, Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs, DFA, and Mr Jamie Cooper, First Secretary, Australian Embassy in Manila, for their introductory remarks on Australia-Philippines relations.<\/p>\n
GAI will publish a Regional Outlook paper on the bilateral relationship in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday 21 July 2017, the Griffith Asia Institute was delighted to participate in an Australia-Philippines dialogue facilitated by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Republic of the Philippines, held at De La Salle University\u2019s Yuchengco Center. This inaugural dialogue built on and extended discussions on the bilateral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":3510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[247],"tags":[1293,1652,379],"class_list":["post-3509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia-and-southeast-asia","tag-ian-hall","tag-michael-heazle","tag-philippines"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Jill Moriarty","yoast_head":"\n