Top US diplomat reaffirms pledge to defend Philippines vs. aggression

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reaffirmed the Biden administration's commitment to defend the Philippines against any armed attack in the South China Sea amid Beijing's new law authorizing its coast guard to shoot foreign vessels in the disputed waters it claims nearly in its entirety.

Blinken made this pledge in a call to Philippine counterpart Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin on Thursday, a day after he was sworn in as America's top diplomat.
"Secretary Blinken and Secretary Locsin reaffirmed that a strong US-Philippine Alliance is vital to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of the Mutual Defense Treaty for the security of both nations, and its clear application to armed attacks against the Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, which includes the South China Sea," according to a statement released by the US State Department.

It's the first indication of the new Biden presidency's policy on the South China Sea disputes and how it would continue to support its regional allies like the Philippines amid the escalating tension in the disputed waters.

The Philippines and the US have a 70-year-old defense accord, called the Mutual Defense Treaty, that  binds America to defend its Asian ally from aggression.

Blinken, the State Department said, also underscored that "the US rejects China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea to the extent they exceed the maritime zones that China is permitted to claim under international law" as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.

"Secretary Blinken pledged to stand with Southeast Asian claimants in the face of PRC pressure," the State Department said as both Secretaries "committed to continue building upon a relationship founded on shared strategic interests and history, democratic values, and strong people-to-people ties."

The US and China are at odds over the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where Beijing has turned several former reefs into artificial islands with military facilities, runways and surface to air missiles battery.

Although Washington is not a party to the disputes, it has declared that it is in its national interest to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight across  the contested waters where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.

China's new law that was passed last week is expected to stoke tensions anew in the disputed waters.

The law allows the Chinese coast guard to undertake "all necessary measures, including the use of weapons when national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by foreign organizations or individuals at sea.”

Manila on Wednesday filed a diplomatic protest against China with Locsin calling the law a "verbal threat of war to any country." —LBG, GMA News