The US on Tuesday announced a $500 million investment in the Philippines to help modernize the Philippine military and coast guard, as Manila faces a growing threat from China in the disputed waters of the Indo-Pacific.
The half billion dollars in foreign military financing, which the US considered an unprecedented investment, comes from the supplementary package for the Indo-Pacific, Israel and Ukraine, approved in April.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Manila with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, called the new funding a “once-in-a-generation investment” in Philippine security.
“Our relationship between the United States and the Philippines is the strongest it has ever been,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We live in incredibly complex times and, as a result, the partnership between our countries is more important than ever.”
Blinken added that the investment would help the Philippines “focus on external defense” and “be better positioned to defend its sovereignty.”
Blinken and Austin, who met with their Filipino counterparts in Manila just a day after reaching a historic deal with Japanese officials in Tokyo to bolster military ties, also agreed with the Philippines to double spending on bases hosting a rotation of US forces in the Pacific. archipelago, as well as sharing information on modernization and defense technology and increase exercises and interoperability.
Austin said the US and the Philippines have also committed to working more closely with other allies in the region, including Japan and Australia, in what he described as a “new convergence in the Indo-Pacific.”
“The United States, the Philippines and our other allies and partners are operating together more closely and competently than ever before,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference.
The deals are likely to infuriate China, which has long resisted growing U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific designed to counter Chinese influence.
In recent years, China has clashed frequently with the Philippines in the South China Sea, over which Beijing claims near-total sovereignty despite a 2016 international ruling. The Chinese coast guard has hit Philippine crews with water cannons and even attacked with machetes.
An agreement reached this month between the Philippines and China allows Philippine crews to refuel a ship stranded on the Second Thomas Shoal reef, where most of the fighting took place, which Manila has used to maintain its presence in the South China Sea.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said on Tuesday they would continue resupply missions after an initial mission after the deal was reached was successful.
“It is something that we are committed to pursuing in successful supply missions, provided, of course, that China also adheres to the understanding,” he said.
Blinken also said he supported the diplomatic agreement.
“It’s really important that this is the standard, not the exception,” he said. “And as I told the Chinese foreign minister when we met in Laos a few days ago, China must fulfill its commitments not to obstruct the Philippines in its resupply missions.”
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