WASHINGTON - The United States pledged Thursday to help the
Philippines step up its defenses in the face of a rising China as it
welcomes President Benigno Aquino III, seen by US officials as a
promising partner.
President Barack Obama will meet Friday at the White House with
Aquino, who has raised the profile of the Philippines in Washington
through his pledges to tackle corruption and to boost the military
relationship with the United States.
Top US military officer General Martin Dempsey, who met Aquino on
Monday in Manila, said that he spoke about expanding cooperation with
the former US colony beyond recent efforts focused on fighting Islamic
insurgents.
The Philippines "has been inward-focused on its internal terrorism
and insurgent issues for some time - for decades really - and so have a
very limited capability to project power or to influence activities
around it," said Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We think that they need some of that, particularly in maritime security," Dempsey told reporters in Washington.
The United States has already been helping to upgrade the notoriously
antiquated Philippine military and Aquino has agreed to let a greater
number of US troops rotate - but not set up bases - in the archipelago.
The cooperation comes as the Philippines sees particularly tense
relations with China, which has butted heads with a number of its
neighbors in recent years over territorial disputes in strategic waters.
Friction escalated in April when Chinese and Philippine vessels
approached the Scarborough Shoal, which lies near the main Philippine
island of Luzon. Manila says the rock formation falls within its
exclusive economic zone, but China claims the shoal along with nearly
all of the South China Sea.
Dempsey said he spoke with Aquino about the need to "ensure freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea.
Dempsey said that he and Aquino did not discuss the disputes in
themselves but "we certainly called on all claimants to resolve these
issues through existing international fora and without coercion."
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