The Philippines and South Korea further strengthened military ties through the signing of a term of reference (TOR) which calls for an Army-to-Army level collaboration.

Philippine Army (PA) chief, Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., and Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) chief-of-staff Gen. Nam Yeong-shin signed the TOR in a virtual ceremony on Thursday.

This is in accordance with the June 2018 memorandum of understanding between the Philippines’ Department of National Defense and South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

”I have this hope that through this TOR, the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Korea will have an ironclad alliance that is ready to face security and defense challenges not only in our respective countries but as well as in the Indo-Pacific Region,” Brawner said in a statement.

The TOR covers the following areas of cooperation — reciprocal visits, mutual exchange of Army related insights and information, military education and training, logistics and maintenance, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military medicine and medical support, subject matter expert exchanges, military technology cooperation, research and development, military sports and cultural activities, and other areas of mutual interest.

Prior to the signing of the TOR, Nam congratulated Brawner for his recent promotion. He also thanked the PA for deploying forces to defend South Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s.

Meanwhile, the PA chief conveyed his gratitude to Nam for ROKA’s arsenal and equipment support to the Philippine Army.

The PA also sent a delegation to the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibit in October 2021.

Brawner added that the PA is looking forward to future collaborations with ROKA and the successful execution of bilateral engagements. (PNA)