India has significantly sharpened its strategic engagement in China’s contested maritime surroundings by elevating its relationship with the Philippines to a strategic partnership in 2025, marking a crucial pivot in its Indo-Pacific policy. This move signals a more assertive and operational role for India in the South China Sea (SCS), which China considers its strategic backyard, challenging China’s expansive maritime claims and projecting India’s growing naval and diplomatic footprint in Southeast Asia.
The strategic partnership encompasses enhanced cooperation in defence, maritime security, trade, technology, digital infrastructure, and cultural exchanges.
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This broad engagement goes beyond rhetoric, involving tangible measures such as the first-ever joint naval patrols in the South China Sea by the Indian and Philippine navies, timed around the state visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to New Delhi.
The joint patrols and the presence of three Indian warships in the Philippines underscore India’s operational commitment to this region’s security and a shared adherence to a rules-based international order, especially upholding the 2016 UNCLOS arbitral tribunal ruling that invalidated China’s “nine-dash line” claims.
On the defence front, India has made a breakthrough by exporting the BrahMos cruise missile system to the Philippines—the first such strategic weapon export—signalling India’s evolution of defence diplomacy into a substantive foreign policy tool. Further plans include increasing defence exports, joint military training, and discussions on submarine infrastructure development, indicating deeper military interoperability between the two countries.
The partnership is as much about capacity building for the Philippines as it is about India establishing itself as a security partner capable of balancing China’s coercive maritime manoeuvres in the Indo-Pacific.
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China has reacted sharply to these developments, accusing the Philippines of involving an external power (India) in the South China Sea disputes, reflecting distress over India’s expanding influence in what China views as its sphere of control.
This includes heightened tensions due to unresolved border issues between India and China, which add layers to their complex bilateral relations. Despite an upcoming visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit and tense India-US relations, India has maintained its operational posture without retreating, signalling a strategic separation between tactical engagement and broader competition with China.
This strategic partnership and the focused Indo-Pacific naval and defence collaboration mark a significant departure from India’s earlier cautious stance on South China Sea disputes. By aligning publicly with the Philippines and emphasising respect for international law, India is stepping beyond economic and diplomatic engagement to become an active and assertive player shaping the future regional order in the Indo-Pacific.
India’s enhanced strategic partnership with the Philippines reflects a calculated and multi-dimensional attempt to project power, advance maritime security cooperation, and challenge China’s dominance in the South China Sea through diplomatic resolve, military engagement, and defence exports. This marks a key inflection point for India’s rising role in regional security architecture and Indo-Pacific geopolitics.
Agencies
