The US has clarified its defense treaty obligations to the Philippines by publishing new rules addressing South China Sea attacks, including on its coast guard.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s relentless drive to revise the Mutual Defense Treaty with the former colonial ruler led to Wednesday’s six-page “bilateral defence guidelines” in Washington.
The recommendations were the first since the pact was formed in 1951 and followed hundreds of Philippine diplomatic concerns in the last year about China’s “aggressive” acts and threats to its coast guard.
The instructions said that the bilateral treaty commitments would be triggered if either was assaulted in the South China Sea or coast guard boats were targeted.
Modern warfare, including “grey zone tactics” employed by China to assert its sovereignty, was also added. The rules didn’t name China.
“Recognising that threats may arise in several domains – including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace – and take the form of asymmetric, hybrid, and irregular warfare and grey-zone tactics, the guidelines chart a way forward to build interoperability in both conventional and non-conventional domains,” the Pentagon said.
China-U.S. tensions have escalated over the South China Sea, a critical commerce route.
Rommel Ong, former deputy commander of the Philippine Navy and professor at the Ateneo School of Government, said the rules convey a “warning” to China against targeting the Philippine coast guard.
Julio Amador, chairman of Manila’s Foundation for the National Interest, a security think organization, stated the security standards. “It’s clear that it will give China some pause.”
China’s foreign ministry warned Thursday that bilateral defense accords “should not be a hunting ground for external forces” in the South China Sea.
Marcos announced the rules this week in Washington after meeting with Joe Biden.
Marcos visited Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said, “we will always have your back, in the South China Sea or elsewhere in the region.”
Marcos increased US military access to his country’s bases in February, prompting China to accuse him of “stoking the fire” of regional hostility.
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