The funding is meant to help Manila resist Beijing's claim over the South China Sea.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr in Manila on July 30.
“This level of funding is unprecedented and sends a clear message of support for the Philippines from the Biden-Harris administration, US Congress and the American people,” he said in a press briefing by the defence and foreign ministers of both nations. Mr Austin said US President Joe Biden is also proposing a separate fund, worth US$128 million this year, which will be used for key infrastructure projects at the nine Philippine military bases that the US currently has access to under an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement .
“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together, in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific, are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Mr Marcos told the US officials during their meeting on July 30.
The US has been backing the Philippines in its territorial dispute with Beijing, reaffirming its commitment to the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty under which both Washington and Manila agreed to support each other in the event of an armed attack. Political analyst Robin Garcia of Manila-based think-tank WR Advisory Group said the intensity of China’s coercive activities against the Philippines in the past two years may be a result of its perception that Manila is weak.
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