US boosting alliance with the Philippines with military funding and pact amid concern over China

Washington’s top diplomat and defense chief, in Manila for talks Tuesday, will announce $500 million in military funding to boost Philippine defenses and progress in a proposed military pact, given that China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region “will not stop,” a Philippine official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has fortified Manila’s decades-old treaty alliance with Washington as hostilities between Philippine and Chinese forces flared since last year in the disputed South China Sea. Marcos has underscored the need for a U.S. military presence for Asian stability and peace.

After the most violent faceoff between Filipino and Chinese forces on June 17 in the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal, the countries announced an agreement last week on a temporary arrangement to prevent such clashes in the future. Philippine forces transported food and other supplies and a fresh batch of navy personnel Saturday to Manila’s territorial outpost at the shoal, which has been closely guarded by Beijing’s forces, but no confrontations were reported for the first time.

The Philippines, however, would continue strengthening its territorial defense with the assistance of the U.S. and other friendly military powers and build new security alliances, Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said.

«The non-confrontational resupply and rotation is purely temporary. The People’s Republic of China will not stop and we are determined just as well,” Romualdez told The Associated Press.

The $500 million in U.S. military financing to be announced by Austin in Manila would include funding for various Philippine navy