New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- Philippines President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr, while addressing a joint press meeting in the national capital on Tuesday, said that India has become the fifth strategic partner for the Philippines.

Marcos said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he have agreed to cooperate further in the defence and security sector.

"Today, India becomes only the fifth strategic partner for the Philippines. This new apex attests as much to the remarkably rapid growth, broadening and deepening of our 75-year-old bilateral relationship, the possibilities represented by the strong upward trajectory of our true economies as it does to the growing alignment of our interests and views on the challenges and imperatives of our time," he sai...