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U.S. provides missiles, renews pledge to defend Philippines

The Associated Press

The United States provided the Philippines in November 2020 with precision-guided missiles and other weapons to battle Islamic State group-aligned militants and renewed a pledge to defend its treaty ally if it’s attacked in the South China Sea.

U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien announced the delivery of the weapons to the Philippine military during a November 23 ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila. U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to provide the U.S. $18 million worth of missiles in a phone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in April 2020, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said. (Pictured: Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., left, and U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien attend a November 23, 2020, ceremony for the delivery of precision-guided missiles and other weapons to the Philippines.)

O’Brien cited the U.S. role in the defeat of the Islamic State group in the Middle East and in the 2019 killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria. He renewed the administration’s commitment to help defeat Islamic State group-linked militants in the southern Philippines.

O’Brien expressed hope for the continuance of a key security agreement that allows U.S. forces to train in large-scale combat exercises in the Philippines. Duterte moved to end the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. in early 2020 but later delayed the effective date to 2021, a move welcomed by O’Brien.

O’Brien also expressed condolences to the Philippines after recent back-to-back typhoons left a trail of death and devastation, and he outlined U.S. help to the country to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

O’Brien said the U.S. stands with the Philippines in protecting its sovereign rights in the South China Sea. The Philippines announced in October 2020 that it would resume oil and gas exploration in or near Reed Bank, which lies off the country’s western coast and is also claimed by the People’s Republic of China.

“They belong to the Philippine people,” O’Brien said of the natural resources. “They don’t belong to some other country that just because they may be bigger than the Philippines they can come take away and convert the resources of the Philippine people. That’s just wrong.”

He repeated U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement in early 2020 that “any armed attack on Philippine forces aircraft or public vessels in the South China Sea will trigger our mutual defense obligations.” The allies have a 69-year-old defense treaty.

In July 2020, Pompeo declared that Washington regards virtually all of the PRC’s maritime claims in the disputed waterway as illegitimate.

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