Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos inspects an honour guard during a welcome ceremony outside of the Pentagon in Washington, DC on May 3, 2023. - AFP
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg): The US and the Philippines promised to deepen their defence alliance through expanded military drills and joint patrols during President Ferdinand Marcos’s visit at the Pentagon where he was given rare honours, amid escalating China tensions.
In new bilateral defense guidelines, the nations reaffirmed their commitment to defend each other in case of an armed attack in the South China Sea on either country’s forces, including on the coast guards.
"Either country may request support when it assesses that a threat is imminent or when indicators of an armed attack may arise,” according to the document released in time for Marcos’s Wednesday visit to the US defence headquarters where he was given full honours. The visit came days after Marcos’s meeting with President Joe Biden who reaffirmed the nations’ "ironclad alliance.”
The first such ceremony at the Pentagon Parade Field for a foreign head of state during the Biden administration underscores deepening security ties between Washington and Manila as disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea, and more recently over Taiwan, flare up.
"So make no mistake, Mr President, we will always have your back in the South China Sea or elsewhere in the region,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said in his opening statement during the meeting with Marcos.
Chinese and Philippine vessels recently came close to collision in the contested waters last month, prompting the US to call on Beijing to end "provocative conduct.” China meanwhile said its vessels’ manoeuvres were "professional and restrained.”
The US and the Philippines also agreed to expand "the scope, scale, and complexity” of military exercises, after holding their biggest war games this year, based on the document. The countries also agreed to prioritise "combined maritime activities, including but not limited to joint patrols.”
China claims more than 80% of the waterway, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes where almost a third of of global maritime crude oil trade passes. A 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling in the Hague had invalidated China’s massive claims.
