The Department of National Defense is presently examining agreements entered with nations that do not support the Philippines’ jurisdiction over the West Philippine Sea, and offer no benefit for the country’s interests in the areas of defense and foreign affairs.

“We are also in a process of reviewing the agreements with countries that do not support our claims and do not have benefit to our defense and foreign policy position,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro stated during the signing of the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with New Zealand, which aims to strengthen the security cooperation between the two forces.

Besides the VFAs with New Zealand, the United States, and Australia, as well as reciprocal access agreements (RAA), like the one established with Japan, the rest of the Philippines’ defense pacts do not serve the country’s defense interests. This includes 50 memorandums of understanding, which the Defense chief did not enumerate.

The administration has previously warned against sisterhood agreements formed by local governments, some of which are connected to China.