Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said Monday that joint patrols between the country, US and Australia in the West Philippine Sea could start in the third quarter.

“We’re already what I would call…continuing discussions on this joint patrols with the United States. I think Australia is also going to be coming in. So I would guess, the estimate would be no later than the third quarter of this year. We should have that in place,” Romualdez told CNN.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and US President Joseph Biden previously released a joint statement welcoming cooperation with other countries that share their “commitment to international law and mutual respect.”

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles in February expressed that they are looking for ways to pursue joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea after his meeting with Defense Officer-in-Charge Carlito Galvez, Jr.

Romualdez said he also sees a trilateral cooperation between the Philippines, Japan, and the US happening in “a couple of months”.

“The bottom line is, Japan is now obviously a strong partner of the Philippines and we would like to see engagements with them also in the defense side of the equation,” Romualdez said.

“So we have this agreement between Japan, the Philippines, and the United States on many other multifaceted aspects of our relationship part of it is the economic part and part of it is the defense,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS