US confirms treaty ties to Philippines
WASHINGTON will defend its oldest treaty ally, the Philippines, if it comes under attack in the South China Sea, US Vice-President Kamala Harris pledged yesterday, reaffirming America’s “unwavering” commitment to the former colony.
Her comments followed a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos jr, who welcomed Harris for the first time at the Philippine presidential palace.
Marcos said the two nations’ strong ties had become even more important, given what he called “upheavals” in the region. “I do not see a future for the Philippines that does not include the US,” said Marcos, the son of the late strongman whom Washington helped flee into exile in Hawaii during a 1986 “people power” uprising.
Harris’s visit is seen largely as Washington’s effort to revive ties with Manila, an Asian ally central to US efforts to counter China’s increasingly assertive policies towards Taiwan.
“We stand with you in defence of international rules and norms as it relates to the South China Sea,” Harris told Marcos. Her three-day trip includes a stop on Palawan, an island on the edge of the South China Sea, to meet officials of the coast guard,
tour one of its vessels and speak on “principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom of navigation,” a senior US official said. Ahead of Harris’ visit, a Philippine military commander accused a Chinese coast guard ship of “forcefully” retrieving a floating object being towed in the South China Sea by cutting a line attaching it to a boat.
The commander said the incident occurred off the waters of Thitu island, one of nine features the Philippines occupies in the Spratly archipelago and the country’s most important outpost in the South China Sea.
In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry denied force had been used, saying the object was debris from a rocket’s payload fairing, or casing that protects the nose-cone of a spacecraft, launched
by China. “People from the Philippine side salvaged and towed the floating object first. After both sides had a friendly negotiation at the scene, the Philippines handed over the floating object to us,” Mao said.
China claims most of the South China Sea, although a 2016 ruling by an arbitration tribunal in the Hague said Beijing’s claims had no legal basis, delivering a victory for Manila. The Philippines has been unable to enforce the ruling and has since filed hundreds of protests over “encroachment” by China’s coast guard and fishing fleet.
Dozens of protesters rallied yesterday against the visit by Harris, saying they did not want the Philippines caught between US and Chinese rivalry.