Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over China’s increasingly assertive actions to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The Philippine president has suspended his decision to terminate a key defense pact with the United States, at least temporarily avoiding a major blow to one of America’s oldest alliances in Asia.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said Filipino forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defense of his recent decision to terminate a U.S. security pact.
The move by the Philippines to end a security pact that allowed U.S. forces to train in the country potentially “challenged” future American operations with Filipino forces, a U.S. admiral said on Thursday.
The Philippines notified the United States on Tuesday it would end a major security pact allowing American forces to train in the country, in the most serious threat under President Rodrigo Duterte to their 69-year treaty alliance.
More than 2,000 U.S. and Philippine military personnel, along with a small contingent of Japanese forces, began annual combat exercises on Wednesday aimed at responding rapidly to crises and natural disasters and underscoring their commitment to keep the region "free and open."
A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed through the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday in the latest show of America's military might amid new territorial flare-ups involving China and three rival claimant states.
The military has deployed large numbers of troops to predominantly Muslim Sulu to bolster a months-long offensive against remnants of the Abu Sayyaf, which is listed by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings.
U.S. and Philippine officials on Tuesday discussed a new program to thwart efforts by Muslim extremists to recruit and mobilize followers in the country’s south after a bloody siege by jihadists aligned with the Islamic State group.
