The Philippine president has suspended his decision to terminate a key defense pact with the United States, at least temporarily avoiding a major blow to one of America’s oldest alliances in Asia.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said Filipino forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defense of his recent decision to terminate a U.S. security pact.
The move by the Philippines to end a security pact that allowed U.S. forces to train in the country potentially “challenged” future American operations with Filipino forces, a U.S. admiral said on Thursday.
The military has deployed large numbers of troops to predominantly Muslim Sulu to bolster a months-long offensive against remnants of the Abu Sayyaf, which is listed by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said a 1951 treaty with the US needed to be re-examined to clear ambiguities that could cause chaos and confusion during a crisis
Two Chinese firms are interested in the Philippines' largest shipyard, once the US's largest naval base in the Pacific, raising new alarm about Chinese expansion.