Canada will give the Philippines free access to state-of-the-art satellites that will allow maritime enforcers to surveil, almost in real time, vessels within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

The satellites will allow authorities to detect and track even “dark vessels,” or ships that have switched off their location transmitters to avoid detection, according to Ottawa’s Ambassador David Hartman.

Aside from access to the Canadian satellites, Ottawa also dispatched another Halifax-class frigate to participate for the first time in the joint Philippines-US naval exercise “Sama-Sama” (All Together) from Oct. 2 to Oct. 13 in southern Luzon.

Canada will also be sending an active-duty defense attache to Manila for the first time beginning October as part of its efforts to bolster the security partnership with the country.“We’ve seen a rise in behavior in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea that we have determined to be worrisome,” Hartman said in a press briefing on Saturday onboard the HMCS Vancouver.

[This is good news. Shocked Canada is willing to do it. ~ Beege]