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India seeks to supply PH with modern military hardware
Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana said India wanted to help the Philippines’ effort to modernize its military arsenal by supplying military hardware.
Lorenzana was asked if there was any signed agreement between the Philippines and India during the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit last week.
Lorenza revealed there was no deal formally signed so far, except for documents, memorandum of understanding on visitation (MoU), military students coming in the Philippines, among others.
“We haven’t signed any right now, but we already have some documents, memorandum of understanding about visitation, military students coming here, or students, officers of the AFP and enlisted personnel of the AFP going there,” Lorenzana said.
“What they want to enter is they want to provide us, to supply us also with equipment because they have a very robust defense industry. They are making there ships, tanks, whatever ammunitions. In fact, in the past, we bought ammunition rounds of our military artillery from them, so they are capable of doing that and they want to tap into our market because they know we are modernizing, we have so many things to buy and they want to enter.”
It remains to be seen if the Philippines will form an agreement with India on military equipment supply. But in the past, India was almost close to secure a deal with the Philippines in its Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Program.
State-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), one of India’s leading shipyards, previously won the first round bid to sell frigates to the Philippines that were worth P18 billion during the wake of the Hague ruling; however, Lorenzana said India got disqualified due to some financial requirements.
“In fact, they participated in the bidding last time in the frigate (project) but they lost in the second round. They won in the first round but when our technical personnel went to India to (inspect) their financial capability, they found out they cannot, there were technically, disqualified; so that’s why Hyundai won because they were the second winner,” Lorenza said.
By that time, India’s defense ministry sought to save the issue by sending a diplomatic mission in Manila, where discussions on whether or not India could assure that the yard would be financially backed were made, according to sources by Economic Times.
The Philippines’ requirement in the bid included a single payment after the two frigates were delivered, which the GRSE could not meet. India’s system of procurement is usually by tranche payments, meaning, structured payments are made as the construction progresses at the shipyard.
