President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has confirmed the Philippines is eyeing a new defense agreement with Germany in a bid to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

On Monday, Marcos welcomed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to Malacañang.

Pistorius is the first German defense minister to visit the Philippines, even as Germany has been one of the Philippines’ longstanding defense partners since forging an administrative agreement in 1974.

The President thanked Pistorius for meeting with him and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and for supporting the Philippines and respecting international law.

“We look always to our partners, who are allies, for support and we are grateful to Germany for continuing to support a rules-based and international law that we all have abided by,” Marcos said.

Pistorius, for his part, said he had a “splendid” meeting with his counterpart on Sunday and that they have committed to revitalizing Philippine-German defense relations.

“We decided, both of us, that we would like to have a security agreement, a defense agreement with you, between our two countries, and we will try to decide until the end of the year,” Pistorius told Marcos.