New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) The fourth Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting between India and the Philippines was held here on Friday with both sides reviewing the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation and discussing ways to further expand the engagements.

The Indian delegation was led by Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Amitabh Prasad, while the Philippine delegation was headed by Assistant Secretary for Strategic Assessments and International Affairs, Department of National Defence, Pablo M Lorenzo, the defence ministry said in a statement.

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"During the meeting, both sides reviewed the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation and discussed effective and practical initiatives to further expand the engagements," it said.

The co-chairs reaffirmed their commitment to implement the 2006 agreement concerning defence cooperation based on mutual trust and understanding, common interest, and shared values of democracy and rule of law, the statement said.

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"Both sides agreed to initiate measures to enhance cooperation in defence industry and technology domain and look forward to greater synergy in effectively deepening bilateral cooperative engagements across the spectrum," it said.

"They discussed cooperation in multilateral forums and noted complementarities in their approaches to the Indo-Pacific region and decided to hold regular consultations on issues of mutual interest," it said.

The interest and enthusiasm towards strengthening the bilateral relations across sectors were appreciated, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)