July 29, 2024
CLARK – French Rafale fighter jets and support aircraft taking part in the Pegase 24 mission touring the Indo-Pacific region made a stop in the Philippines for the first time, in a display of global reach and airpower amid a spat between Manila and Beijing in nearby disputed waters.
Journalists flew aboard a huge French Air Force A400M transport aircraft on Sunday over waters off Luzon’s western coast on the edge of the South China Sea on a two-hour bumpy flight, supposedly to witness two Rafale fighter jets fly with an A330 refueling tanker that keeps its air operations longer in the skies. It was an apparent attempt to showcase France’s capabilities and commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight in the region to the media.
READ: France air force mission includes PH for first time
The Rafale fighters did not take off due to bad weather, but this did not dampen the mood since the French Air and Space Force contingent will be in the country until the end of the month to display their capabilities and engage their local counterparts.
“The message of the Pegase mission is that we are able to send very quickly, very far, our best and our modern aircraft able to ensure the security of the area in the Indo-Pacific where the French interests are concerned and are threatened,” Brig. Gen. Guillaume Thomas from the French Air Defense and Operations Command said at a press briefing after the flight.
‘A nation of the Pacific’
Over the next few days, the French Air Force will hold subject matter exchanges with the Philippine Air Force on logistics and technical expertise.
Philippine pilots will also get the chance to ride the Rafale and the accompanying aircraft to learn about them.
“We want to demonstrate the expansion of our military partnership in the air domain to showcase the trust and vitality of our relationship and to demonstrate that France stands close to the Philippines,” Thomas said.
The Pegase 24 mission, which aims to showcase a presence in the Indo-Pacific, is already on its final leg of visiting some of its Southeast Asian partners after holding exercises with allies in previous stops.
“We’re here to develop our cooperation, our interoperability and to move further with our cooperation with the Philippine Air Force,” Thomas said.
“France is a nation of the Pacific, so we need to protect our population, our overseas territories, our interests in the region, and support our sovereignty forces in these territories at short notice,” he added.
He made it clear, however, that France’s activities were not directed against any country.
France’s visit came as Philippine troops transported supplies to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal on Saturday without incident, the first time since Manila and Beijing reached an understanding to ease tensions early this month. Both sides, however, have been at odds and have different accounts on the agreement.
Visiting forces deal
France has been seeking to forge closer ties with Manila and is in the early stages of negotiations on a Status of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which would allow both forces to engage more frequently.
“We don’t need a VFA in order to perform and to organize these stopovers … we already do. But it’s true that each time it is required to negotiate specific technical arrangements and if we had a broader VFA, that would be a framework for many frequent and even last-minute deployments that otherwise we need to prepare for a long run,” French Ambassador to Manila Marie Fontanel said in the same briefing.
“We’re all very impressed by the speed according to which the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) was signed with Japan. Now we probably will be next in line if we are first ourselves. And I think we will try to do that. But then after that, I cannot commit to any timing and schedule for the negotiation itself,” Fontanel said.
Manila and Tokyo sealed an RAA early in July that took only about eight months to negotiate.
The RAA, similar in many respects to the country’s visiting forces pact with the United States and Australia, allows the entry of Philippine and Japanese military forces into each other’s jurisdiction for joint exercises and disaster response.