US vows to defend PH if attacked in South China Sea
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:12:38 +0000
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before their bilateral meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday vowed to defend the Philippines against ”armed attack” in the disputed South China Sea in Washington’s starkest warning yet against Chinese claims to most of the strategic waterway.
Speaking hours after meeting President Duterte Thursday, Pompeo said Beijing’s building of artificial islands in waters also claimed by Manila and other neighbors were potential threats to the two allies.
”China’s island-building and military activities in the South China Sea threaten your sovereignty, security, and therefore economic livelihood, as well as that of the United States,” he said in a joint news conference with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City.
”As the South China Sea is part of the Pacific, any armed attack of Philippine forces, aircraft, or public vessels in the South China Sea will trigger mutual defense obligations under Article 4 of our Mutual Defense Treaty.”
Pompeo’s comments marked the first time any US official had publicly stated Washington’s intent to defend its ally in the flashpoint sea. A 1951 US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty committed Manila and its former colonial master to come to each other’s aid in case of an ”armed attack in the Pacific area” on either party.
Senior Duterte officials have called for a review of the MDT with the US because they were unsure whether or not it applied to the South China Sea row.
Philippine troops, as well as fishermen, have frequently complained about harassment by Chinese maritime security forces around some of the islands and reefs occupied by Filipino troops.
The United States has said it is not taking sides in the disputes over South China Sea islands and waters claimed by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Beijing claims most of the sea.
However, Washington has asserted its right to freely sail its military and merchant vessels over waters through which trillions of dollars in global trade pass through each year and which reputedly contain vast mineral and oil reserves.
The Philippines was previously one of the staunchest critics to China’s island-building and militarization of the islands. But Duterte put the dispute on the back burner when he was elected President in 2016 in favor of chasing Chinese trade and investment.
He threatened a split with the United States and called then US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore.”
Relations are being rebuilt under US President Donald Trump, who has hailed Duterte’s actions – including a drugs crackdown that has claimed thousands of lives – as a sign of toughness.
Locsin downplayed the government’s suggestions for a review of the MDT, saying in its ”vagueness lies the best deterrence.”
”They (US forces) will respond depending on the circumstances but we are very assured, we are very confident that United States has, in the words of Secretary Pompeo and words of President Trump to our President: We have your back,” Locsin said.
The government is “pleased” with US commitment to defend the country against any attack in the South China Sea but has not ruled out a possible review of the decades-old MDT.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said there might be “some kinks” in the MDT that “need to be clarified.”
“It’s much better perhaps that it’s clear-cut in the treaty itself so I think there is still need to review the MDT despite the policy pronouncement,” Panelo said during a Palace press briefing, commenting on the US vow to come to the country’s aid if it is attacked.
“We will have to evaluate but we are pleased to note that the US has made a policy statement with respect to attacks on a Philippine vessel to be deemed as an attack against the US,” he added.
A possible review of the MDT would depend if “there are movements that will dispute or that will contradict what the US Secretary of State said.”
Panelo said Washington’s commitment to support the Philippines was “an observance of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries.” (AFP and Genalyn Kabiling)