Top US diplomat floats alliance with Japan, Australia to aid Phl
MANILA — The third highest-ranking official at the US State Department raised the possibility of engaging Japan and Australia to help the Philippines in security and economic issues amid the increasing assertiveness of China in the Asia-Pacific.
Speaking to select reporters on Monday during her visit to the Philippines, US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said there have been discussions on strengthening multilateralism in the region, particularly with Tokyo and Canberra, which she described as having “strong alliances” with Washington.
“We have shared interests, obviously, in maintaining strong democracies, in maintaining free and open commerce and ensuring that even as we compete with China, we are preventing conflict and we are working together to keep the straits free and open and all those things,” Nuland said in response to a query on joint patrols in the South China Sea.
“The idea here is obviously, we have a strong alliance together, but we’re even stronger when we combine forces with other democracies,” she added later in the briefing.
Just two weeks ago, US naval operations chief Admiral Michael Gilday said during his visit to the Philippines that Washington is “committed” to conducting joint maritime patrols with Manila in the disputed strategic waterway.
Nuland said the US is “working on the cadence and plans for those.”
Teresita Daza, the spokesperson for Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs, said last week that the government is crafting guidelines on maritime activities, including joint patrols, in the West Philippine Sea or the part of the South China Sea that the country claims.
Daza said operational details, including the possibility of engaging other regional partners, will be part of discussions between the Philippines and the US through the Mutual Defense Board and Security Engagement Board, which coordinate a framework for defense and security cooperation between the militaries of Manila and Washington.
EDCA consultations underway
On top of building up multilateral ties, Nuland stressed the need to strengthen the US-Philippines alliance in the face of what she called “China’s increasingly aggressive and coercive behavior” in security and economics.
“We also need to strengthen the structures of alliance that allow us to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” she said, using the American term to refer to the Asia-Pacific.
Among these are the four additional sites in the Philippines identified under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement under which US troops will have access to military bases in the country. This, Nuland said, “will make us stronger” not just in security but also in humanitarian contingencies and economic opportunities.
Nuland said local communities where the four new EDCA sites will be located are being consulted upon, but she deferred to the Philippine government to announce where these sites will be.