Approval to Sign a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement

Published: 28 Oct 2026

Category: Publication

This publication provides Cabinet’s March 2025 decision to approve the text of a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) with the Republic of Philippines. The SOVFA was signed in April 2025 by the New Zealand Minister of Defence and Philippines Secretary of National Defense, and then subsequently ratified in August 2026 by the Philippines Senate.

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Additional info

Additional info

The pack comprises the Cabinet paper and associated minute of decision Approval to Sign a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement [LEG-25-SUB-0026 and LEG-25-MIN-0026].

It has been necessary to withhold certain information in accordance with the following provisions of the Official Information Act 1982. Where information is withheld, the relevant sections of the Act are indicated in the body of the document. Where information has been withheld in accordance with section 9(2) of the Act, no public interest has been identified that would outweigh the reasons for withholding it.

Information is withheld where making it available would be likely to prejudice:

• the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand [section 6(a)]

• the entrusting of information to the Government of New Zealand on the basis of confidence by the Government of any other country [section 6(b)(i)].

Information is also withheld in order to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to Ministers of the Crown or members of an organisation or officers and employees of any department or organisation in the course of their duty [section 9(2)(g)(i)]. 

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This copyright work is licensed under the  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to the Ministry of Defence and abide by the other licence terms.