Manila aims to sign Australia security pact soon

KUALA LUMPUR - The Philippines and Australia will soon sign a security pact allowing Australian troops to be stationed in the Southeast Asian nation, the Philippine defence minister said on Tuesday.

Avelino Cruz, who is in Malaysia to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian defence ministers, said the Philippines hoped to sign similar agreements with other Southeast Asian nations to strengthen the battle against terrorism.

"I have talked to most of the defence ministers in ASEAN and I have broached to them the idea of a status of forces agreement in order that we can conduct joint exercises against terrorism or for disaster response," Cruz told Reuters.

Annual meetings of defence ministers planned by the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations would be a tremendous boost in helping to hammer out such agreements, he added.

"If ASEAN were a chariot, the defence ministers' meetings will be an additional stallion to push ASEAN forward," Cruz said.

"My sense is that all of the defence ministers in ASEAN will see this as a very logical next step, as a forum for dialogue, a forum for exploring cooperative measures, and the next step toward instituting an ASEAN security community."

A status of forces agreement (SOFA) with Australia would allow thousands of Australian soldiers to participate in annual military exercises with the United States.

"With respect to Australia, the negotiating partners have met twice, and I've seen the almost final draft and the issues are easily surmountable, and I think probably in a month or so that should be completed and signed and executed," Cruz said.

Canberra, which has shown deep concern over the activities of Islamic militants in the southern Philippines since the 2002 Bali bombing, already provides training for about 60 Philippine soldiers a year in Australia.

A handful of Australian police officers is based in the Philippines to train counterparts in bomb-investigation methods.

Cruz said the Philippines also hoped to sign similar agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Defence officials of the tiny oil-rich nation of Brunei had also expressed interest, he added.

"The next step will be, after I send them a formal letter, to constitute negotiating panels for those ASEAN members who are keen to enter into a SOFA with the Philippines," he added.

The Philippines will launch a new security pact with the United States on May 24 to jointly fight militants, bird flu, piracy, natural disasters and other threats, Cruz said.

The United States, a former colonial ruler of the Southeast Asian country, has been a major source of military aid for the poorly funded Philippine armed forces, in the form of training and hardware such as rifles, gunboats and helicopters.

Washington has poured in more than US$300 million in security assistance since 2000.

The two countries had agreed to create a legal framework for cooperation on issues outside a defence treaty that dates to the 1950s, said Cruz, who was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's lawyer before she named him defence secretary in August 2004.

"What we have done was to create a framework, a legal mechanism for this cooperation, which we are calling the security engagement board," Cruz said.

"In fact we have already completed the exchange of notes to implement this security engagement board and we are going to launch it on May 24, this month."

- REUTERS