The growing partnership between the Philippines and South Korea, evidenced by the recent upgrading of their decades-long ties, could serve as a benchmark for other nations to emulate amid an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, analysts say.
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s trip to Manila in October 2024 — the first stop on his six-day Southeast Asia tour — was the first state visit to the Philippines by a South Korean leader in over a decade. Agreements signed during the visit covered Coast Guard cooperation, tourism, cooperation on raw material supply chains, infrastructure development and economic cooperation.
“We agreed that we have made significant strides in advancing and deepening our bilateral cooperation towards the attainment of our mutually beneficial goals,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.
The nations’ ties date back more than seven decades. The Philippines was the fifth country to recognize South Korea, establishing diplomatic relations in March 1949, and Philippine troops served in the United Nations force that defended the South during the Korean War.
With rising threats to security and stability in the West Philippine Sea and on the Korean Peninsula, including the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary territorial assertions and North Korea’s illicit missile programs, Manila and Seoul have drawn closer. Their shared concerns over ensuring a Free and Open Indo-Pacific also encompass a potential PRC invasion of self-governed Taiwan.
South Korea participated in the defense exercise Kamandag, which was held recently in the Philippines and also involved Australia, France, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“The Philippines-South Korea relationship is a time-tested one encompassing the 1950s during the Korean War, when the Filipino people put their lives on the line to preserve and protect the sovereignty of South Korea,” Don McLain Gill, a lecturer in international studies at De La Salle University in Manila, told FORUM. “Now, fast forward to the more contemporary times, we see this level of like-mindedness and shared partnerships evolve, particularly in the security realm.”
South Korea is among the world’s top arms exporters and has been a major source of defense equipment for the Philippines. During his visit to Manila, Yoon said Seoul will continue contributing to the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ modernization.
Seoul’s nuclear power expertise, meanwhile, could underpin an energy security partnership, with the nations agreeing to study the potential rehabilitation of the Philippines’ noncommissioned Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
Gill said the burgeoning bilateral relationship could be a model for other Southeast Asian countries. The region is a crucial element in South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy and the Philippines is “a natural partner” given the nations’ historic ties.
The evolving geopolitical landscape, particularly the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific, means “there are more opportunities for South Korea and the Philippines to work hand in hand,” Gill said. “This is because of that strategic intersection between South Korea’s vision for the Indo-Pacific … and Manila’s more proactive approach in wanting to contribute more as a stakeholder of the rules-based order of the Indo-Pacific’s maritime domain.”
