MANILA (Dispatches) -- The United States on Tuesday pledged funding of $500 million for the Philippines’ military and coast guard in a big show of support for Manila as it squares up against China in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met their Philippine counterparts in Manila to reaffirm Washington’s unwavering support for its oldest treaty ally in Asia.
“This level of funding is unprecedented, and it sends a clear message of support for the Philippines, from the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Congress and the American people,” Austin said in joint press conference following security talks.
Ahead of their meetings, Blinken and Austin met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr who has moved the Philippines closer to Washington since he replaced Rodrigo Duterte, who was openly hostile to the Americans and pursued warmer ties with China during his six-year term.
The Philippines has competing claims with China in the waters to its west also known as the South China Sea. China claims 90% of the sea as its sovereign territory.
Violence broke out after a Filipino sailor lost a finger in a June 17 mission to resupply troops stationed at a contested shoal after what Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard.
Manila reached a provisional arrangement with China for resupply missions this month to ease tensions and manage differences, but the two sides appear at odds over the details of the deal, which has not been made public.
Philippine foreign minister Enrique Manalo said in the same news conference his country agreed to an “exchange of information” under its arrangement with China.
Blinken reaffirmed what he described as Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its vessels, aircraft and soldiers in the waterway.
The meetings in Manila follow talks between Blinken and Austin and their counterparts in Japan, another key U.S. ally in East Asia, where they announced an upgrade of the U.S. military command in Japan and labeled China the greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.
Blinken also met on Monday with foreign ministers from Australia, India and Japan, a grouping known as the Quad, and decried China’s actions in the South China Sea.
China’s foreign ministry hit back at Washington and Tokyo, for attacking what it called China’s “normal military development and national defense policy” and accused the Quad of “artificially creating tension, inciting confrontation and containing the development of other countries”.