CLARK FIELD: After five months of intense fighting between Philippine government security forces and the Daesh-backed Islamist Maute group in Marawi City, the government has declared victory.
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana made the announcement at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers Meeting, which opened here on Monday.
Ministers from the 10 ASEAN member nations — the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Brunei Darussalam — arranged a special meeting to discuss ongoing and future coordinated approaches to the growing security threats in Southeast Asia, particularly terrorism and violent extremism.
Lorenza announced the Philippine government’s victory in Marawi in a press conference, saying that combat operations in the country’s only Islamic city had been terminated, as the remaining Maute fighters had been killed.
“There are no more militants inside Marawi City,” Lorenzana said, confirming what President Rodrigo R. Duterte said last week when he declared the city free from terrorists.
Lorenzana claimed the victory meant the government had “defeated terrorism in the Philippines.”
“In crushing the most serious attempt thus far to export violent extremism and radicalism to the Philippines and the region, we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia and (helped) to maintain global peace, stability, and security,” he said.
“While we (acknowledge) that these tactical and strategic gains will not annihilate the ideology completely, we declare that this achievement is a clear manifestation of how our regional cooperation can lead to a decisive advance against the proliferation of terrorism in this part of the world,” Lorenzana continued.
The defense secretary expressed his gratitude for the help extended by the US, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore, and China as government forces battled the militant forces.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis praised the Philippines for its victory in Marawi.
Mattis is in the Philippines for the ADMM-Plus — a platform for ASEAN defense chiefs to engage their counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the US.
“One of the first things I’m going to do is commend the Philippine military for liberating Marawi from the terrorists,” Mattis said in a statement released by the Pentagon. “It was a very tough fight, and I think the Philippine military sent a very strong message to the terrorists.”
Mattis added that his attendance was an opportunity to recognize ASEAN for 50 years of promoting peace and stability in Southeast Asia, and 40 years of cooperation with America.
“They have done a very good job of it,” he said.
Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne, who is also attending ADMM-Plus, met the crews of the two Australian Defense Force (ADF) AP-3C Orion aircraft which provided aerial surveillance support to the Philippine government’s successful operations against the Maute group in Marawi.
“We ask a lot of the men and women of the ADF and they answer without question and I particularly want to acknowledge that today,” she said. “I want to acknowledge the very real contribution that our ability to work with the government of the Philippines and the armed forces of the Philippines makes in terms of effective regional engagement.
“Australia and the Philippines have an extremely long, shared regional and military history. And our engagement in surveillance activity here has been an extension of that,” she continued. “An important extension of that.”
Philippines declares victory over Daesh in Marawi
Philippines declares victory over Daesh in Marawi
EU leaders begin India visit ahead of ‘mother of all deals’ trade pact
- Antonio Luis Santos da Costa, Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests at Republic Day function
- Access to EU market will help mitigate India’s loss of access to US following Trump’s tariffs
New Delhi: Europe’s top leaders have arrived in New Delhi to participate in Republic Day celebrations on Monday, ahead of a key EU-India Summit and the conclusion of a long-sought free trade agreement.
European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in India over the weekend, invited as chief guests of the 77th Republic Day parade.
They will hold talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the EU-India Summit, where they are expected to announce a comprehensive trade agreement after years of stalled negotiations.
Von der Leyen called it the “mother of all deals” at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week — a reference made earlier by India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal — as it will create a market of 2 billion people.
“The India-EU FTA has been a long time coming as negotiations have been going on between the two for more than a decade. Some of the red lines that prevented the signing of the FTA continue to this date, but it seems that the trade negotiations have found a way around it,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The main contentious issue remains the Indian government’s desire to protect the farmers and dairy producers from competition and the European Union’s strict climate-based rules and taxation. Despite this, both see enormous value in the trade deal.”
India already has free trade agreements with more than a dozen countries, including Australia, the UAE, and Japan.
The pact with the EU would be its third in less than a year, after it signed a multibillion CEPA (comprehensive economic partnership agreement) with the UK in July and another with Oman in December. A week after the Oman deal, New Delhi also concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement with New Zealand, as it races to secure strategic and trade ties with the rest of the world, after US President Donald Trump slapped it with 50 percent tariffs.
The EU is also facing tariff uncertainty. Earlier this month Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on several EU countries unless they supported his efforts to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark.
“The expediting factor in the trade deal is the unilateral and economically irrational trade decisions taken by their biggest trading partner, the United States,” Manur told Arab News.
Being subject to the highest tariff rates, India has been required to sign FTAs with other major economies. Access to the EU market would help mitigate the loss of access to the US.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, accounting for about $136 billion in the financial year 2024-25.
Before the tariffs, India enjoyed a $45 billion trade surplus with the US, exporting nearly $80 billion. To the EU’s 27 member states, it exports about $75 billion.
“This can be sizably increased after the FTA,” Manur said. “Purely in value terms, this would be the biggest FTA for India, surpassing the successful FTAs with the UK, Australia, Oman and the UAE.”
