The Philippines and Australia are working towards a new defence agreement to be signed next year, their defence ministers said on Friday, as both nations seek to step up military cooperation to deal with shared security challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

Manila: The Philippines and Australia plan to sign a new pact to develop the Southeast Asian nation s military infrastructure, their defence chiefs

Australia will augment the Philippines’ defense facilities as the two nations plan to enhance security cooperation amid Manila’s continuing tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Footage shows a Chinese coast guard vessel chasing a Philippine boat and then ramming a Chinese warship. It was the latest confrontation in the contested waters.

The Philippines and Australia are set to formalize a new defense cooperation agreement as both nations move to strengthen their security ties, officials

Philippines proposes bill to build a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, directing its central bank to acquire 2,000 BTC annually for five years.

China and the Philippines are trading blame over an incident earlier this week in which two Chinese ships collided in the South China Sea, where both nations have competing territorial claims.

The Philippine military has blamed China for a collision between two Chinese navy and coast guard ships in disputed waters

Edison Palattao, a 52-year-old fisherman in Aparri, Cagayan, still can’t move on from how the extraction of river sand made their lives miserable. “It really made our lives worse,” he recalled as he blamed the extraction of sand from the Cagayan River as the reason behind the serious decline in fish and aramang catch.