World News | Chinese diplomats oppose U.S. military presence in the Philippines

MANILA, March 23 (AP) — Chinese diplomats voiced strong opposition to the expansion of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines during closed-door talks with the Philippine foreign minister in Manila on Thursday, a Philippine official said, underscoring the growing tension between the U.S. and China. Intense competition in the Philippines. the area.

Filipino officials who participated in the meeting told The Associated Press that China strongly objected on the condition of anonymity because it did not have the authority to discuss what happened at the start of the two-day talks.

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Philippine diplomats responded by saying the decision to allow the U.S. to expand its military presence was in their national interest and would improve the Philippines’ ability to respond to natural disasters, the official said, suggesting it was not aimed at China.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Teresa Lazaro chaired talks aimed at assessing the overall relationship between the two sides amid thorny issues, including Beijing’s response to the Philippines’ decision to allow the U.S. military to expand its presence to the north facing the Philippines area warning. Escalating disputes in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

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Friday’s discussions will focus on a long-running and bitter territorial dispute in the disputed waterway, according to Manila’s foreign ministry.

The back-to-back meetings are the first since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in June. In January, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Beijing, where the two agreed to expand ties, negotiate potential joint oil and gas exploration and manage territorial disputes amicably.

In early February, the Marcos government announced it would allow U.S. troops to be stationed indefinitely in four additional Filipino military camps in rotating batches. These are in addition to the five local bases designated under a 2014 defense agreement between the longtime treaty allies.

Marcos said on Wednesday that the four new military bases will include the northern part of the Philippines. The site has angered Chinese officials because it would provide a staging ground for U.S. forces close to southern China and Taiwan.

Americans also have access to military areas in the western Philippine island province of Palawan, Marcos said, adding that the U.S. presence was aimed at strengthening coastal defenses under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Palawan faces the South China Sea, a key passageway for global trade, and Beijing claims almost all of it, but a U.N.-backed arbitration tribunal ruled in 2016 that the historic claim has no legal basis.

China has rejected the ruling recognized by Washington and other Western governments and continues to defy it.

Asked to react to the Philippines’ decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that defense cooperation between countries “needs to be conducive to regional peace and stability and not to target or harm any third party’s interest party”.

Wang warned countries in the region to “remain vigilant and avoid being coerced or used by the United States,” without naming the Philippines.

A recent statement from the Chinese embassy in Manila was more blunt, warning that the Manila government’s security cooperation with Washington “will eventually drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical disputes and harm its economic development”.

Territorial conflict has been a major irritant in relations between the two countries early in Marcos’ six-year tenure, with the Philippines making more than 200 diplomatic protests and its government at least 77 over China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters since last year alone.

These included an incident on Feb. 6 when a Chinese Coast Guard ship aimed a military-grade laser at a disputed shoal, briefly blinding some of the crew of a Philippine patrol boat.

Marcos summoned China’s ambassador to Manila to express concern over the incident, but Beijing said the Philippine vessel had trespassed into Chinese territorial waters and its coast guard used harmless laser equipment to monitor the vessel’s movements.

The Biden administration has been strengthening a series of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including any future confrontation over Taiwan. The U.S. move dovetails with the Philippines’ efforts to bolster its territorial defenses amid the dispute with China in the South China Sea.

On Thursday, the United States denied China’s claim that its military had expelled a U.S. guided-missile destroyer operating around disputed islands in the South China Sea, with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet saying in a statement that the aircraft carrier USS Milius was conducting operations in the waterway. Routine action, no dismissal.

China’s Southern Theater Command earlier said it had forced the aircraft carrier Milius to leave Paracel after “illegally entering China’s territorial waters off Xisha without the approval of the Chinese government, undermining peace and stability in southern China” waters near the islands. ocean. “

The Philippine government will extend the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the temporary presence of U.S. troops and their defense equipment in the country, two senior Philippine officials told The Associated Press.

The Philippine constitution prohibits the permanent presence of foreign troops in the country and participation in local fighting.

The agreement, signed in 2014, has an initial term of 10 years and will automatically remain in effect unless terminated by either party with one year’s prior written notice.

The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. (Associated Press)

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