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Sam Beltran

The elevation of ties between the Philippines and New Zealand to a comprehensive partnership gives both countries a wider framework to deepen cooperation, as Manila expands its network of middle-power partners and Wellington steps up its engagement in Southeast Asia, analysts have said.
The upgrade also builds on rapidly tightening defence ties, giving Manila another security partner and New Zealand a stronger foothold in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific, observers add.
New Zealand and the Philippines formalised the partnership on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Asean foreign ministers’ meetings in Manila, marking the 60th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro and her New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters announced the upgrade, which followed an agreement made during New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s visit to Manila in April 2024 to elevate bilateral ties.
“New Zealand and the Philippines are close friends and trusted partners on the world stage – and today we turn this friendship into concrete action,” Peters said.
“Elevating our relationship to a comprehensive partnership signals the importance we place on working together to support a stable, rules-based Indo-Pacific.”

According to a joint statement by the top diplomats, the announcement “signals an elevated level of cooperation” following milestone achievements in the past two years spanning political engagement, defence, security and maritime cooperation, trade and economic engagement and people-to-people ties.
Both countries also revealed a road map delineating the four focus areas of cooperation under their comprehensive partnership, including an agreement to achieve a 50 per cent increase in two-way trade by 2030, a pact on geothermal energy, and a memorandum of cooperation for education.
The diplomats also acknowledged the growth in military-to-military cooperation, joint exercises, training, which comes a year after both countries signed a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) in April 2025, allowing their forces to hold joint exercises on each other’s soil.
Strengthening defence and beyond
Although bilateral ties have improved in recent years, analysts say a comprehensive partnership allows both countries to improve other aspects of their relationship and match the tempo of their defence cooperation.
The Philippines and New Zealand enjoy long-standing relations. They upgraded their ties to an enhanced defence cooperation partnership in 2017 and signed a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement in 2024, enabling both sides to extend logistics support during exercises, training, deployments and other related matters.
Last year’s SOVFA further cemented these ties as New Zealand seeks to secure its presence in the region amid the Indo-Pacific’s growing strategic importance.

“The SOVFA and the logistics pact of 2024 show that the Philippines is really intent on adding more defence partners to its security network,” said Julio Amador, CEO of Amador Research Services and a distinguished visiting fellow at Perry World House.
“In a practical sense, it may not mean much right now, but it does bring additional counterweight; having more countries on your side is really helpful should contingencies arise.”
Amador stressed that the pact benefited not only the Philippines but also gave New Zealand leverage, given its distance from other Indo-Pacific countries, and “indicates Wellington’s willingness to be more active in the affairs of Southeast Asia”.
For New Zealand’s Peters, the elevated ties represent “the importance we place on working together to support a stable, rules-based Indo-Pacific”. He called the Philippines a “dynamic partner in Southeast Asia – a regional powerhouse of 113 million people, and one of the region’s fastest-growing economies”.
Peters’ remarks come on the back of Luxon’s May interview with CNA, where he said New Zealand saw “huge opportunity in the Indo-Pacific” as a driver of the global economy’s growing middle class, but also acknowledged that economic prosperity and security were inextricably linked.
“At a regional level we’ve been forming relationships with lots of countries across the Indo-Pacific region because we think it’s also about where we can drive tremendous prosperity … we need to make sure that we work together well across this region,” he said.
In addition to investing heavily in its defence capabilities – spending nearly US$7 billion in the next four years – Luxon also stressed the importance of middle powers working together amid the shift to a multipolar world, building security and trade relations with like-minded countries through “latticework-type” agreements.

Chester Cabalza, president of the think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, said Manila could grow its intelligence capabilities and enhance its maritime domain awareness and surveillance capacities through its ties with Wellington.
“Despite its modest military size, Wellington is a core member of the elite Five Eyes intelligence alliance,” Cabalza said, referring to the grouping that also includes Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
New Zealand, he said, could help strengthen critical monitoring capabilities over vast maritime spaces through its maritime domain awareness systems and join forces with the Philippines to establish a dedicated cyber-intelligence node to counter grey-zone information warfare.
For Amador, having a comprehensive partnership with New Zealand reflects the growing bilateral ties, which extend beyond defence.
“Having a status of visiting forces agreement means that, in many ways, the defence ties between Manila and Wellington are already strong,” Amador said. “The level of diplomatic relations, which is only at the comprehensive partnership level, does not match the tempo of the defence one, but also shows that there’s progress.”
Amador said the Philippines should try to find avenues for deeper and improved cooperation with New Zealand.
“Working on development cooperation activities would be one thing, particularly on human resources. New Zealand has excellent universities, which the Philippines should tap more, and particularly finding opportunities for scholarships for Filipinos would be a good area,” he said.


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The upgrade to a comprehensive partnership gives both countries a wider framework to deepen cooperation, analysts say


The upgrade to a comprehensive partnership gives both countries a wider framework to deepen cooperation, analysts say.


What does New Zealand bring to the Philippines’ security network?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The upgrade to a comprehensive partnership gives both countries a wider framework to deepen cooperation, analysts say

The upgrade to a comprehensive partnership gives both countries a wider framework to deepen cooperation, analysts say