Lithuania is evaluating sharing maritime technologies shaped by lessons from the war in Ukraine with the Philippines, as Vilnius and Manila deepen their security partnership, Philstar Global reported.
During a visit to the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters in Manila, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said the systems under discussion are intended to strengthen maritime surveillance and help safeguard critical shipping routes.
According to Budrys, the rapid technological advances prompted by Ukraine’s defense efforts offer capabilities that can be repurposed for peacetime uses.
Following the meeting, the Philippine Coast Guard announced that both sides will establish a technical working group to explore collaboration in cybersecurity, personnel training, and marine environmental protection.
The initiative builds on a defense agreement signed by the two countries last year, which identified maritime security and cybersecurity as priority areas.
South China Sea Tensions
The planned cooperation comes as the Philippines seeks to strengthen its maritime security capabilities amid growing tensions with China in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the strategic waterway under its so-called “nine-dash line,” despite a 2016 international arbitral ruling under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that found those claims have no legal basis.
Earlier this month, Philippine authorities accused the China Coast Guard of using water cannons against a government vessel delivering fuel subsidies to fishermen near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef in the northeastern South China Sea, west of the Philippine island of Luzon.
Days earlier, the Philippine military accused China Coast Guard personnel of assaulting a Filipino sailor with a baton near Second Thomas Shoal in the southern Spratly Islands, where the Philippines maintains the grounded BRP Sierra Madre as a military outpost.
