As China two-ocean push looms, India and Philippines close ranks

On 16 December, India and the Philippines successfully concluded their first track 1 bilateral Maritime Dialogue in Manila. The meeting was headed by Marshall Louis Alferez, the assistant secretary of Maritime and Ocean Affairs in the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and Muanpuii Saiawi, joint secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs in India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The inaugural meeting coincided with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two Indo-Pacific democracies. Furthermore, both sides called for "full and faithful compliance" with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016…