Ukraine plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Philippines that will pave the way for cooperation in the field of defense technologies, in particular, joint production of drones. The document is expected to be approved by October, after which a Ukrainian delegation, including representatives of the Ministry of Defence, will arrive in Manila for further negotiations. This is reported by Naval News.
According to the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Philippines Yulia Fediv, Ukraine is currently developing various drone models and offers cooperation options to different countries, including the exchange of technologies and experience. Fediv emphasized that the Philippines is a reliable partner in the region, so Ukraine is ready to share both successful solutions and lessons learned from the war.
According to the publication, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine has significantly expanded the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, including naval ones. Ukrainian companies have created several types of surface drones, which are actively used against warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Analyst, OSINT expert and author of Naval News, H.I. Sutton, notes that Ukraine has become a world leader in the practical application of surface unmanned platforms and has companies capable of designing, building and advising other states on this issue. According to him, Ukrainian-type drones could pose a serious challenge to China, which is becoming increasingly assertive in the West Philippine Sea.
Other experts also believe that Ukraine's experience could be useful to the Philippines, which is modernizing its armed forces and seeking asymmetric solutions to counter China's military dominance in the region. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro previously said that the country is considering unmanned maritime systems as a temporary alternative to submarines.
By the way, at the MSPO 2025 exhibition in Poland, Estonia showed the EUROMITE marine drone, which can be controlled from a tablet.