By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed that that the US would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the Philippines to deter conflict, specifically calling out “threats from the communist Chinese.”
In the first visit to Manila by a senior national security official in the Trump administration, Hegseth promised the president stands firmly behind the two countries’ military agreement.
“He (Trump) and I both want to express the ironclad commitment we have to the mutual defense treaty and to the partnership, economically, militarily, which our staffs have worked on diligently for weeks and weeks and month,” Hegseth said while meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Marcos praised Hegseth for the message he sent in making the Philippines his first stop on a trip to Asia, calling it a “very strong indication and sends a very strong message of the commitment of both our countries to continue to work together, to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region within the South China Sea.”
Manila is seen as a valuable ally in helping ward off Chinese aggression, and the US has taken more steps in the last year to building a stronger military alliance with the Philippines.
China and the Philippines have repeatedly clashed over territorial claims in the last year and the Chinese coast guard has harassed Philippine ships on numerous occasions . China claims most of the South China Sea as its own – a claim that the Permanent Court of Arbitration declared has no merit.
In the last several years, the US strengthened military ties with the Philippines. That has included more and larger joint exercises, plus the US has been given more access to bases there.
Plus, the Philippines reportedly plans to buy the US-made Typhon intermediate-range ballistic missile system, which the US brought to the island nation last spring for exercises. China has called the presence of those missiles “provocative” and “destabilizing.”
Meanwhile, Hegseth and his Philippine counterpart, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., said they had agreed to build upon the US commitment last July to spend $500 billion to modernize the Philippine military.
They outlined a four-point plan that includes:
-deploying more US advanced military capabilities, including the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), a mobile, ground-based anti-ship missile launcher;
-conducting joint special operations forces training In the Batanes Islands, an island group 120 miles south of Taiwan;
-launching a joint cybersecurity campaign;
-and publishing a joint defense industrial cooperation vision statement. Among the priorities outlined in the statement are potential co-production of unmanned systems and more robust logistics support.
