PHILIPPINES BACKS OFF THREAT TO U.S. PACT

In a strategic setback for China, the Philippine government Tuesday said it was suspending termination of a long-standing military pact with the United States that President Rodrigo Duterte has criticized as unfair.

The Philippine foreign secretary, Teodoro Locsin, made Tuesday’s announcement over Twitter, saying that he had informed Washington of the suspension in a diplomatic note. The decision was made “in light of political and other developments in the region,” Locsin said in the diplomatic note, without elaboration.

The United States welcomed the reversal. “Our long-standing alliance has benefited both countries, and we look forward to continued close security and defense cooperation with the Philippines,” the U.S. Embassy in Manila said in a statement.

Political analysts interpreted the reversal as a sign that China’s neighbors are worried about its growing military assertiveness. The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia all have disputes with China about its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Some analysts saw the reversal as a strategic gain for the United States, given that the Philippines is the only U.S. treaty ally near the South China Sea, a vital maritime shipping route.

“In light of China’s continued assertion of its historic rights in Vietnamese and Malaysian waters over the last year, Manila may have concluded that its previous rapprochement with Beijing would not protect Philippine interests,” said M. Taylor Fravel, a politicalscience professor who is director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In February, Duterte had ordered the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement, endangering a security blanket for the Philippines, which has been facing increasingly hostile Chinese actions in the South China Sea. Under the agreement, Washington and Manila had 180 days after the issuance of a termination notice — until August, in this case — to try to salvage the deal.