Terrorism, WPS on table
MEETING BETWEEN PHL, U.S. DEFENSE CHIEFS
Lorenzana and Esper are scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. today at the Department of National Defense building in Camp Aguinaldo
Issues on terrorism and the West Philippine Sea (WPS) are expected to be discussed today during a meeting between Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and his United States counterpart Secretary Mark Esper in Camp Aguinaldo.
According to Department of National Defense (DND)-Public Affairs Director Arsenio Andolong, while he has yet to see a detailed agenda of the meeting as of Sunday, it was safe to say that terrorism, the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines
U.S. defense relations and other issues of mutual concern will be tackled.
“It’s all generalities on Philippines and US defense relations but as to the specifics, I still have not seen the agenda,” Andolong said.
Pressed if terrorism and the West Philippine Sea issues are on the table, Andolong replied “yes, those are usual subjects. Terrorism, West Philippine Sea and our defense relations with them.”
Andolong said that the meeting between Lorenzana and Esper is scheduled at 1 p.m. today at the DND building in Camp Aguinaldo.
He said a media briefing will be held after the meeting.
Esper’s stop in Manila came after his engagement at the 51st US-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting before heading towards Thailand to participate in the ASEANDefense Minister Meeting Plus.
After visiting the Philippines, Esper will proceed to Vietnam to discuss the regional security environment and how to boost further the defense relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the DND is eyeing more trainings with
Australian military on urban warfare and counterterrorism and maybe on humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
So far, the Australians have already trained about 10,000 personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on urban warfare following the 2017 Marawi City siege laid by the Daesh-inspired MauteIslamic State group.
“They (Australians) feel that they have a huge stake here in the region so they want to raise their engagement with us to a higher level,” Andolong said.