US hands $500m military aid boost to Philippines amid China tensions | South China Sea News

US taking ‘bold steps’ to strengthen alliance says defence chief as Washington bids for increased regional influence.

The United States has announced that it will provide $500m in military funding to the Philippines, as the pair eyes ongoing tensions with China.

The announcement came on Tuesday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Manila. The two officials launched an Asia Pacific tour over the weekend, aimed at boosting Washington’s influence in the region in a bid to challenge the “strategic challenge” Beijing poses.

“We’re now allocating an additional $500m in foreign military financing to the Philippines to boost security collaboration with our oldest treaty ally in this region,” Blinken told a news conference alongside Manila’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Blinken described the aid as a “once in a generation investment” to help modernise the Philippine armed forces and coastguard.

Lloyd said the funds demonstrate the commitment of the US to take “bold steps to strengthen our alliance”.

“We are here to build on an extraordinary foundation. We are working to advance our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he declared. “This level of funding is unprecedented.”

Teodoro called the aid a “tremendous boost” to Manila’s defence capabilities. Manalo said the Philippines welcomes the “iron-clad commitment” shown by the US to the pair’s alliance.

Military modernisation

Biden and Lloyd earlier met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who thanked them for helping to make the Philippines more “agile in terms of our responses” in the West Philippine Sea – the term used by Manila to refer to the area in the South China Sea in which a series of escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels has taken place over recent months.

Beijing lays claim to nearly all of the strategically located waterway. It has built artificial islands, fully equipped with military-type landing strips and shipping ports, and recently enacted new regulations permitting its coastguard to use lethal force against foreign ships in the waters it claims.

The Chinese claim overlaps with the competing claims of several neighbouring ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as the Philippines.

Amid the tension, Manila has begun modernising its armed forces, one of the weakest in Asia, and bolstering its coastguard.

The incidents in the South China Sea have also raised concern that Washington could be dragged into the conflict with Beijing due to a mutual defence treaty with Manila.

At the same time, the Philippines’ proximity to the hotly contested sea, as well as Taiwan, would make it a key partner for the US if a conflict were to break out in the region.

The announced funding is part of a $2bn facility for foreign military financing that was approved by the US in April.