US not coming to Philipines aid vs China

[SHASH2K2]

[h=1]US, Philippines boost ties amid row with China[/h]

MANILA, Philippines: In a highly symbolic ceremony aboard a guided-missile destroyer on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton underlined America's military and diplomatic support for the Philippines as the island nation engages in an increasingly tense dispute with China over claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.

On the USS Fitzgerald in Manila Bay, Clinton and her Philippine counterpart, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, signed a declaration calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as those over the South China Sea. Six countries in the region have competing claims, but China wants them to negotiate one-to-one _ and chafes at any US involvement.

Clinton said that at this week's East Asian Summit in Bali, Indonesia, the U.S. ``will certainly expect and participate in very open and frank discussions,'' including the maritime challenges in the region and how to address them. Beijing said Tuesday it opposes bringing up the issue at the summit.

The US said it is helping its longtime Asian ally reinforce its weak navy as it wrangles with China over the sea's potentially oil-rich Spratly islands, which straddle one of the world's most vital sea lanes.

``We are making sure that our collective defense capabilities and communications infrastructure are operationally and materially capable of deterring provocations from the full spectrum of state and non-state actors,'' Clinton said aboard the Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy vessel that has operated in the South China Sea.

The Manila Declaration signed by Clinton and del Rosario commemorated the 60th anniversary of the allies' Mutual Defense Treaty. It also calls for ``maintaining freedom of navigation, unimpeded lawful commerce, and transit of people across the seas.''

Del Rosario said that Washington's support for ``a stronger, reliable Philippine defense'' was crucial for stability and the two allies' common goals in the South China Sea. He reiterated that the Philippines planned to seek U.N. arbitration in the territorial dispute.

Clinton and President Benigno Aquino III later reaffirmed the countries' defense alliance and discussed details of intensified U.S. military assistance.

The U.S. is bolstering the underfunded Philippine military's capability to guard territorial waters and Manila-claimed areas in the disputed Spratlys _ a chain of up to 190 islands, reefs and banks in the South China Sea.

The Spratlys are being disputed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. The territorial disputes have been feared as Asia's next flashpoint for conflict.

Washington has maintained a policy of not siding with any Asian claimant locked in the disputes while maintaining robust economic ties with Beijing. But the U.S. has said it has a stake in security and unhampered international commerce in the South China Sea, angering China, which says American involvement will only complicate the issue.

The Philippines, whose poorly equipped forces are no match for China's powerful military, has resorted to diplomatic protests and increasingly turned to Washington to reinforce its anemic navy and air forces. Aquino has insisted his country won't be bullied by China.

A senior U.S. State Department official traveling with Clinton told reporters that America's military assistance to the Philippines will increasingly turn to bolstering its naval power.

For nearly a decade, the U.S. military has been providing counterterrorism training, weapons and intelligence to help Filipino troops battle al-Qaida-linked groups in the nation's south. Those include the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization, and its allied militants from the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah group.

``We are now in the process ... of diversifying and changing the nature of our engagement,'' the U.S. official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity of the information. ``We will continue those efforts in the south, but we are focusing more on maritime capabilities and other aspects of expeditionary military power.''

The U.S. recently provided the Philippines with a destroyer, and the official said a second one will be delivered soon. ``We are working on a whole host of things that improve their own indigenous capabilities to be able to deal with maritime challenges,'' the official said.

The 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty calls on each country to help defend the other against an external attack by an aggressor in their territories or in the Pacific region.

Questions have emerged whether the treaty would apply if Philippine forces come under attack in the disputed waters, all of which are claimed by China.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs says in a policy paper that the treaty requires Washington to help defend Filipino forces, citing U.S. diplomatic dispatches that defined the Pacific region as including the South China Sea.

Clinton said in June that the U.S. would honor its commitment under the treaty but refused to comment specifically if that includes the Spratlys.

While it backs the Philippines, the State Department official suggested such help has its limits. ``We're very sensitive to making sure that this does not in any way alarm or provoke anybody else,'' he said.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Maybe somebody else mentioned it, but US foreign policy towards China must always be affected by the financial US debt held by the latter.

Also can't help remembering the circumstances of the loss of Subic Bay to USN.

 

[asianobserve]

Maybe somebody else mentioned it, but US foreign policy towards China must always be affected by the financial US debt held by the latter.

Also can't help remembering the circumstances of the loss of Subic Bay to USN.

I have learned very recently that the Philippines is again stationing US Forces (since 2003 actually). The US does not maintain anymore a fixed Subic Bay type base but it has a basing arrangement wherein US operates flexibly from ports in the Minadano island. The US forces based in the Philippines are mainly on sea basing offshore. Philippine ports and airports are staging points (but they have support forces on the ground). If anything, this could mean that the bitterness of the loss of the Subic Bay could have been tempered by this new arrangement. It seems that the US base in the Philippines just got bigger (or more flexible) since now US forces are not anymore rstricted to Subic Bay.

 

[SHASH2K2]

[h=1]Clinton Reaffirms Military Ties With the Philippines
[/h]
MANILA — During a high-profile visit to the Philippines on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stood on the deck of a American warship in Manila Bay and reaffirmed the strong military relationship between the United States and the Philippines.
The visit comes at a time of heightening tensions in the South China Sea related to the oil-rich Spratly Islands, which are the subject of disputed claims by China, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. By some estimates, the energy reserves in the areas being disputed by the various countries could rival those of Kuwait.
"We are making sure that our collective defense capabilities and communications infrastructure are operationally and materially capable of deterring provocations from the full spectrum of state and nonstate actors," Mrs. Clinton said aboard the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Fitzgerald.
Mrs. Clinton's visit also coincides with a trip to the region by President Obama. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama arrived in the Australian capital of Canberra and announced with Prime Minister Julia Gillard an agreement that allows for an increased military presence in that country. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton will then attend the East Asian Summit in Indonesia.
While in the Philippines, Mrs. Clinton also signed a pact promoting economic growth and attended a lively public forum in which she took questions from the public. But her appearance on the deck of the warship — a highly symbolic event — had greater impact for the militarily weak Philippines as it tangles with a huge neighbor to the north over the Spratly Islands.
"Filipinos appreciate symbolism," said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform. "She did not say anything unusual, but they saw her on a warship in Manila Bay. They received the message."
Mrs. Clinton, whose visit was marked by relatively modest anti-American protests at the American Embassy in Manila, reiterated Washington's position that territorial disputes in the South China Sea should be settled peacefully. In another gesture not lost on her local audience, she referred to the disputed area by its locally coined name: the West Philippine Sea.
"We are strongly of the opinion that disputes that exist primarily in the West Philippine Sea between the Philippines and China should be resolved peacefully," she said during a televised news conference with Philippine secretary for foreign affairs, Albert del Rosario. "Any nation with a claim has a right to exert it, but they do not have a right to pursue it through intimidation or coercion."
Following its independence in 1946, the Philippines signed agreements that allowed American military bases to operate in the country. Large American Air Force and Navy bases were closed in the early 1990s after contentious debate in the Philippine Senate, but the 1952 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty — upon which the military relationship is based — has remained intact.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, American military involvement in the Philippines focused on Islamic extremist groups operating in the southern part of the country. In recent years, broader defense coordination has taken place, including American assistance for the outdated naval forces of the Philippines.
The United States currently has no military bases in the Philippines, though visits by American Navy ships and joint drills are common. In October, the United States and the Philippines conducted war games on the island of Palawan, 50 miles from the disputed area with China.
Mr. Casiple, the analyst, noted that the Philippine government has been careful to balance these military gestures with the recognition that the country needs to maintain close and cordial economic ties with China.
"The Philippines does not want to be the representative of the U.S. military in Southeast Asia," he said. "I think the Philippine government wants to maintain its friendship with both these great powers and not become a ball in the middle being kicked by both sides."