2025 in video review: A geopolitical travelogue

Dear readers, the past is a prologue. Today, I invite you to look back and, in a way, anticipate what lies ahead in our foreign policy and security space.

Last year was a busy one for the foreign affairs and defense departments. It was a year of putting flesh to the two-D policy, on the ground and on the waters: making diversification real to boost deterrence. Our diplomats forged strategic partnerships and our defense officials sealed visiting forces agreements with a number of countries, swept by their momentum in 2024. 

Join me in this video review of my geopolitical travelogue in 2025. I will take you to countries that matter through my three-minute video explainers, “Hindi Ito Marites”. The title is a play of words, as my name has turned into Filipino slang meaning someone who loves to trade gossip. It’s a shortened version of, “Mare, anong latest?”

Some of you may not be aware of these bimonthly shorts, produced by a team led by JC Gotinga, our super producer and my teacher on many things video. You can find “Hindi Ito Marites” on our website and on the Rappler pages on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Here we go:

1. Taiwan, our neighbor, is a hot spot. Global attention is on this island-nation that China wants to invade or blockade. President Xi Jinping has tasked the People’s Liberation Army to be prepared in 2027 — in the context of the mainland’s core interest to reunify with Taiwan.

As J. Michael Cole, Taipei-based author and former intelligence officer, writes in his new book, “The Taiwan Tinderbox,” this Pacific island-nation has become a “tinderbox that could ignite a full-scale global conflict.”

Last September, we did an episode on Philippine-Taiwan relations and why it’s complicated by the one-China policy. I described Taiwan in an earlier newsletter as a “sensitive tooth” while JC put it this way: It is like an “illicit affair, tiptoeing around a touchy Beijing.”

Watch it here.

2. India is our largest strategic partner and the most powerful in Asia, based on the size of its military. It has already surpassed China in terms of population size and has overtaken Japan: it is now the fourth largest economy in the world. This huge country is our counterfoil against China. 

Watch our episode aired last October. 

A month later, the Indian and Philippine navies held a joint drill in the West Philippine Sea, showing the trajectory of our security ties.

3. Last year, Canada and the Philippines forged a visiting forces agreement (VFA), similar to what we have with New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the US. This northern American country is casting its gaze on Southeast Asia as it reduces its dependence on its neighbor and once best friend, America.

In its Indo-Pacific strategy, Ottawa regards China as a “disruptive power” but its sheer size and influence make cooperation with Beijing necessary. However, when China disregards the rule of law and undermines its interests and those of its partners in the region, Canada promises to challenge China and abide by its friends in Southeast Asia.

This episode was aired last December. Watch it here.

4. This year, Manila is scheduled to sign a VFA with France. Yes, our first for the new year — and our sixth, so far. France has one of the most modern navies in Europe and is a resident middle power in the Pacific.

Last July, after President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Southeast Asia — Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore — we did this episode, taking off from an old French connection between our countries, when France was in search of other countries to colonize. 

Months later, in November, the French and Philippine navies did a joint maritime drill and more is expected this year.

Watch this.

5. New Zealand and the Philippines signed a VFA in April last year. We did this video in January 2025, showing how the ties between our countries were then blossoming, describing the security zeitgeist in this southern Pacific country. 

New Zealand was one of the countries that responded to our call for support in standing up to China. 

Here’s a glimpse into our security relations with New Zealand.

This year, we expect talks for a VFA with the United Kingdom to start. Last September, UK’s minister of state for defense, Lord Coaker, visited Manila and met Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., expressing interest in forging a VFA with the Philippines.  If concluded, it will be Manila’s second VFA with a European country.

But the biggest security presence here in 2026 will be America, as I wrote earlier. Our geography makes us their inevitable, forever ally.

Hope you can join me again this year as we continue our geopolitical travelogue as we follow foreign policy and security issues. Let me know what you think. You can email me at [email protected].

Till next newsletter.

Happy new year!