World News | China warns Philippines against military cooperation with US

Beijing [China]March 13 (ANI): China’s foreign ministry on Sunday warned the Philippines against stepping up military cooperation with the United States, doing so would benefit Washington’s geopolitical goals and would harm Manila’s security, RT reported.

In a recent warning to the Philippine government, China’s embassy in Manila cited President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s decision last month to allow U.S. troops access to four other military installations in the Southeast Asian country. The embassy said such cooperation “will pull the Philippines towards China, tie the country to the chariot of geopolitical disputes, and seriously endanger the Philippines’ national interests and regional peace and stability”.

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Relations with Beijing have soured since Marcos took office last summer over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which China claims. US Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited the island nation in November, claimed the world was “struggling to deal with an attack on the rules-based international order”, according to RT.

The Chinese embassy has advised the Marcos government not to intervene in U.S. efforts to maintain global hegemony.

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China accuses the United States and its NATO partners of acting as if the Cold War is still ongoing. The Chinese embassy said the United States had “provoked trouble” in the South China Sea, undermining efforts by China and its neighbors to maintain peace and stability in the disputed waters.

The statement from the Chinese embassy read: “Currently, regional countries such as China and the Philippines are at a critical moment of post-epidemic recovery. We should adhere to the correct track of good-neighborly friendship, mutual benefit and win-win results.”

Around the disputed waters are some Filipino locations where U.S. troops will be stationed. US soldiers are also allowed to store equipment at these facilities under the defense cooperation agreement, which could be useful in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Russia Today reported. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)