US to give Philippines $672 million in military aid to counter China

MANILA – The United States on July 30 said it is giving the Philippines US$500 million (S$672 million) to boost Manila’s military capabilities, as the South-east Asian country defends its claims against a more aggressive Beijing in the disputed South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made the announcement after meeting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr as well as their Filipino counterparts, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, in Manila.

Mr Austin called it a “once-in-a-generation investment” to modernise the armed forces of the Philippines and the country’s coast guard.

“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.

Reuters reported that Manila previously received around US$1.14 billion worth of US military assistance from 2015 to 2022, including US$475.3 million worth of foreign military financing.

The US officials are in the middle of a 10-day Indo-Pacific tour aimed at reassuring allies and shoring up support as

Washington competes with China for greater influence in the region.

They came from Tokyo, where they met their Japanese and South Korean counterparts. Mr Blinken earlier visited Vietnam and Laos, and will end his Asian trip in Singapore before heading back to the US.

The foreign military financing falls under the national security supplemental budget earlier passed by the US Congress.

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 (EDCA).

Signed in 2014, the agreement allows American forces to build facilities, bring in equipment and hold joint training exercises at mutually agreed upon bases in the Philippines.

It also allows the US to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays, but does not grant them a permanent presence in the country.

The US initially had access to only five military bases, but Mr Marcos in 2023 expanded the EDCA’s ambit, as his administration sought to beef up defence ties to counter a more assertive Beijing in the South China Sea.

“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 West Philippine Sea is the official term Manila uses to refer to the eastern parts of the South China Sea that fall within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. This area also comes within China’s expansive nine-dash line that marks its claims of sovereignty over the disputed waterway.

Mr Teodoro said the funding would help the Philippines build a credible deterrent against China.

“Every peso or dollar spent on hardening Philippine capabilities to defend itself and deter unlawful aggression will be a plus against any threat actor, whether it be China or anyone else,” he added.

The US funding comes roughly six weeks after knife-wielding Chinese naval sailors clashed with Philippine naval forces at the Second Thomas Shoal, where a World War II-era warship has been grounded since 1999 to serve as a remote military outpost for Manila.

Temperatures between the two nations spiked in the aftermath of the incident. But China and the Philippines on July 21 said they had reached a “provisional arrangement” on Manila’s resupply missions to the beached ship to ease tensions.

Details of the arrangement have not been publicly released.

“Both of us (the US and the Philippines) share concerns, and many other countries in the region share concerns as well, about some of the actions that the People’s Republic of China has taken – escalatory actions in the South China Sea, East China Sea and elsewhere,” said Mr Blinken.

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.

Mr Blinken said the US stands by its commitments under the treaty, which he noted covers armed attacks against the Filipino military and coast guard forces, and their vessels and aircraft anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea.

But geopolitical analysts have said the US may have also been pushing Manila to de-escalate tensions with China as it is preoccupied with other military crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Before flying to Manila on July 30, Mr Austin and Mr Blinken were in Tokyo, where they released a joint statement with their Japanese counterparts singling out China as “the greatest strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond”.

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.

“More resources from the US can show Philippine commitment and resolve in defending against China’s aggression, a direct result of the conscious and systematic management of the US-Philippine alliance,” he told The Straits Times.

Beyond the military aid, plans for funding the development of EDCA sites would be “more substantial” for the Philippines, said political analyst and assistant professor Edcel Ibarra from the University of the Philippines.

“It kind of sweetens the pot for the Philippines to continue implementing EDCA rather than terminating it.

“One of the selling points of EDCA has always been that the Philippines is going to own whatever was built on the EDCA sites, and it’s a very important signal that both parties are now very serious in implementing EDCA as originally intended,” said Prof Ibarra.

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on July 30 that Mr Blinken will make an official visit to the Republic on July 30 and 31.

He will meet Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Mr Blinken is also slated to co-chair the Second US-Singapore Critical and Emerging Technology Dialogue with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Dr Balakrishnan and Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo.

Mr Sullivan will attend the event virtually.