India and the Philippines are looking to sign an agreement on the Brahmo screws missile during a planned summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Rodrigo Duterte next year. Making the Southeast Asian country the first customer for the weapons system developed jointly by New Delhi and Moscow. A team from Brahmo's aerospace, the New Delhi-based India Russia joint venture that produces the weapons system, is expected to visit Manila by December to sort out a few remaining issues for the deal to supply the missiles to the Philippines' army's first land-based missile system battery, people familiar with development set on condition of anonymity on Thursday. The Brahmo's team is expected to iron out a few kinks and address some small issues so that the deal can be signed during the upcoming summit. Everything else has been worked out, one of the people cited above said. Though dates for the summit between Modi and Duterte are yet to be finalized, the meeting is expected to be held in February. Several other agreements, including on cooperation between India's central drug standard control organization, CDSCO, and its Philippines counterpart, ICT, and AirRights, are also expected to be signed during the meeting, the people said. India and the Philippines were initially expected to sign a defense cooperation and procurement agreement, which would have covered the Brahmo deal, during the virtual meeting of the joint commission on bilateral cooperation co-chared by external affairs Minister Rasjation Kuran his counterpart, Tehidoro Loxon Jr. on November 6th. However, the signing couldn't go ahead as planned because of a formality, the people said. One of the signing authorities was not available and it was only a formality, said the person cited above. Hindu Stantimes had first reported in December last year that the Philippines was set to become the first country to buy the Brahmo-Screws missile system. Though both signs were keen on finalizing a deal earlier this year, the matter was hit by developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia's deputy chief of mission Roman Babish can also said on Thursday that India and Russia plan to gradually increase the range of the Brahmos and begin exporting the missile to third countries, starting with the Philippines. The Philippines army zeroed in on the Brahmos after extensive trials and much of the negotiations had revolved around the cost of the system and financing for the deal. The supersonic cruise missile with a range of about 500 kilometers will equip the Philippines army's first land-based missile system battery, which was raised and activated in October last year. The Philippines army expects the battery to be fully ready and for all the equipment to be acquired by 2024. According to the plans, the battery will be fully capable of defending the Philippines against external threats by 2028.