France trims Balikatan deployment due to Middle East crisis

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MANILA, Philippines — France will deploy a contingent of 15 to 20 personnel to participate in the upcoming Balikatan exercise with the Philippine military.

At a press conference on Monday, April 13, French Ambassador to the Philippines Marie Fontanel said France had planned a larger deployment for this year's Balikatan, including the amphibious task group Jeanne d'Arc.

Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, however, French forces were redirected to another area where their assets were deemed more urgently needed.

"We were hoping to have a large deployment that included the Jeanne d'Arc coming to the Philippines on the occasion of Balikatan. The deployment was requested to stay in Europe and not far from the Middle East, considering the current situation," Fontanel said.

"We will still participate, not to the level we wanted, but we will participate in Balikatan this year and probably again in the years to come," she added.

Despite the scaled-down participation, Fontanel said French troops would transition from observer status to active participation following the signing of a Visiting Forces Agreement in March 2026.

France's defense attache, Capt. Stephan Litzler, said France had initially intended to send the Jeanne d'Arc task group to take part in joint all-domain operations in Palawan.

With the group's withdrawal, participation has shifted from tactical maneuvers to higher-level coordination.

Litzler said the French contingent will consist of 15 to 20 personnel assigned to headquarters roles in Palawan and to the cyber defense phase of the exercise in Manila.

The team, which includes liaison officers, will focus on gaining technical knowledge and understanding how training operations are conducted within the Philippine military.

"We can continue getting the operational intimacy and continue to have perspectives in terms of participation in further iterations of either Balikatan or other types of exercise," he said.

From observer to participant

In 2024, France held observer status in the Balikatan exercises.

Despite this, the French and Philippine militaries have conducted several maritime and aerial exercises since then.

The Visiting Forces Agreement between Manila and Paris was signed last month in Paris.

France is the first European country with which the Philippines has a VFA and the second Southeast Asian country where France has such an agreement.

Other countries with similar agreements with the Philippines include the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Japan has a similar arrangement through a Reciprocal Access Agreement.

Fontanel said the VFA would improve the "operational intimacy" between the two countries' militaries.

"The more we do, the better for this operational intimacy that we want to create together. So we want to continue, of course, doing that, and the good thing with the visiting forces agreement is that naturally it will foster and make it like a reflex to intensify the number of those interactions," she said.