Brawner: Phl eyes inclusion of South Korea in ‘squad’ of allies

The Philippines is considering the inclusion of South Korea in the Indo-Pacific regional "squad", a security group composed of allied nations — the United States, Australia, and Japan.

"We believe that they also have a stake in the security aspect of the region. [Even] if we say this is an informal security architecture, we believe that more countries joining this would be beneficial because we want to promote, we are promoting in fact, the same objectives — which is to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific and also a rules-based international order," AFP Chief General Romeo Brawner told reporters in an ambush interview.

“Yung international order na hindi po isang bansa lang ang nagpipilit (The international order where no single country is imposing its will). But it's an internationally accepted rules-based security arrangement,” he added.

The defense chiefs of the so-called squad gathered for the first time in June 2023 during the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore.

Last year, the four nations conducted joint maritime patrols within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) amid increasing tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS).

China claims almost the entire SCS, overlapping with the EEZs of the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan.

However, Brawner emphasized that the squad was not formed to counter any specific country but rather to "strengthen and enhance the capabilities" of each member nation's forces.

“Because the more countries that you have on your side, the better. You become stronger as a collective group rather than individual countries with their own interests. Because we found out, that we in fact have common interests. Our countries have common interests,” he said.