Amid a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape, maritime security has emerged as a growing common concern that knows no geographical bounds — one that looks beyond threats that emerge from the waters and extends to the broader economic challenges that emanate from an increasingly interconnected maritime environment.
The evolving maritime relationship between Germany and the Philippines is a reflection of this interconnectedness. From Chinese gray-zone activity in the South China Sea to Russian hybrid tactics in the Baltic Sea, as well as the uncertainty surrounding external security partnerships, both states face distinct but increasingly overlapping maritime vulnerabilities. Similarly, their converging interests across the Indo-Pacific and Europe, including safeguarding vital sea lanes, upholding international law, diversifying partnerships, and strengthening multilateral cooperation, underpin their broader commitments to freedom of navigation, peaceful dispute resolution, coordinated action on shared challenges, and regional stability.
While this presents a promising opportunity for deeper maritime cooperation between Berlin and Manila, the task ahead requires building on existing initiatives to respond to the changing maritime environment, where traditional security threats carry wider implications for shared economic agendas.
Germany and the Philippines have enjoyed diplomatic relations for over 72 years, and their maritime security partnerships and initiatives have particularly gained momentum in recent years. Key bilateral agreements and initiatives between the two countries include the Defence Cooperation Arrangement signed May last year, which enhances defense ties and boosts joint activities while expanding cooperation in defense armament and logistics. Additionally, Germany provided support for the Philippine Coast Guard through the donation of drones for maritime surveillance, especially in the West Philippine Sea. These monitoring measures protect local fisheries and aid disaster response, advancing economic resilience. This demonstrates how Germany-Philippines relations can extend beyond conventional security concerns, with maritime cooperation also encompassing broader security considerations, particularly those affecting economic initiatives and livelihoods that rely on these waters.
These bilateral efforts are supported by multilateral and parallel initiatives, establishing their shared interests in creating a secure maritime environment. Germany’s Indo-Pacific Deployment in 2024, particularly the three-day Manila port call by the Baden Wuerttemberg and Frankfurt, showcased their firm commitment to maritime security in the region. Germany has also been involved in ASEAN initiatives, participating as a Sectoral Dialogue Partner at the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. ASEAN’s Secretary-General also had a working visit to Germany, where he emphasized maritime security as a “shared and interconnected responsibility” affecting livelihoods intercontinentally. Recent bilateral and multilateral efforts vis-à-vis the West Philippine Sea at the ASEAN level also recognize emerging tangential economic challenges from it, making economic security an interconnected trade and supply chain issue rather than a lone struggle for maritime sovereignty.
The Philippines is also positioning itself as a formal maritime security partner of the European Union (EU). In October last year, the EU-Philippines Maritime Cooperation Subcommittee reiterated their calls for compliance to UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral ruling, as well as their openness to diplomatic solutions in managing conflict, among others. It tapped into other spheres of maritime cooperation like maritime domain awareness, capacity-building, critical maritime infrastructure, coast guard cooperation, and maritime education. Last July, the EU approved its first-ever European Peace Facility assistance to the Philippines, a measure aimed to support maritime domain awareness; the move is regarded as a major milestone in their security and defense partnership.
These initiatives point to the broader perception that maritime security challenges cannot be addressed in isolation, as their implications for cooperation areas like trade, supply chains, and livelihood increasingly cut across individual regions.
The need for a more robust Germany-Philippines cooperation is becoming more apparent as geopolitical tensions continue to reshape the maritime environment. As 2026 moves into its final quarter, we need to take stock of the challenges faced by the Philippines and its partners.
Within Southeast Asia, the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia continues, confrontation in the South China Sea persists between the Philippines and China, and ASEAN must still confront the future of Myanmar. Globally, the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. war with Iran, and the Israel-Palestine conflict all point to geopolitics as the primary foreign policy and international security problem that states now face. These geopolitical issues meanwhile affect energy security, leading to food and transport insecurity, while states are now more blatantly using international trade as a tool against each other. The rising geopolitical tensions in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz – both vital maritime routes and chokepoints – continue to threaten global supply chains and drive up costs on import-dependent economies like the Philippines. Crucial undersea cables are severed and intercepted globally, from the Baltics to Taiwan. Similarly, China utilizes “gray-zone tactics” in the West Philippine Sea through deploying naval vessels, militia, and coast guards – coercive actions below war raise stakes. Largely, however, the “rules-based international order” is seen as eroding, especially as actors like Russia and China repeatedly supersede them. The United States is increasingly bolstering protectionist policies, leading both US-reliant Germany and the Philippines to seek novel partnerships and perform burden-sharing.
Amid these circumstances, the Foundation for the National Interest and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Philippines, together with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), are meeting for the third time in their bilateral strategic think-tank dialogue to consider the challenges and propose potential pathways. This serves to deepen cooperation, fostering dialogue on “security, economic resilience, and technological cooperation,” especially in terms of combatting grey-zone activity and its transparency initiative, including efforts to uncover coercive behaviors within maritime security spaces.
Through dialogues of this kind, isolated maritime issues can be consolidated and translated into concrete, forward-looking steps for cooperation. As tensions and threats accelerate, preserving avenues for strategic exchange will be essential to fostering deeper cooperation between Germany and the Philippines.
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ADM Jose Luis M. Alano AFP RET is the chairperson of the Foundation for the National Interest.