Breaking News: Biden says US defense commitments to Japan and Philippines remain ‘ironclad’ - Filipino Subtitle
Biden says US defense commitments to Japan and Philippines remain ‘ironclad’ as he hosts key meeting amid China tensions
The United States’ commitments to the defense of Japan and the Philippines remain “ironclad,” President Joe Biden said on Thursday as he hosted the leaders of those countries amid their separate territorial disputes with China.
The comments came as Biden hosted the first ever trilateral summit between the three countries, welcoming Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the White House a day after the official visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“When we stand as one, we’re able to forge a better future for all,” Biden said in the East Room of the White House Thursday.
Japan and the Philippines both have separate territorial disputes with China, in the former’s case the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and in the latter’s areas of the South China Sea.
Philippines-China tensions have focused on Second Thomas Shoal, which sits about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the coast of the Philippine island of Palawan.
In the 1990s, the Philippines grounded an aging World War II-era navy transport ship on the shoal, to help enforce its claim to the area. The ship is now mostly a rusted wreckage and is manned by Filipino marines stationed on rotation.
Meanwhile, China claims the shoal, which is in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, as its sovereign territory, as it does much of the South China Sea, in defiance of an international arbitration ruling. Recent clashes have occurred when Philippine attempts to resupply the forces on the ship have been met by China Coast Guard ships firing water cannons at the Philippine resupply boats, resulting in injuries to Filipino sailors and damage to the vessels.
Referencing the Filipino-Chinese tensions, Biden on Thursday said “any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.”
The 1951 mutual defense treaty between the US and the Philippines - the oldest such US pact in the Asia-Pacific - stipulates both sides would help defend each other if either were attacked by a third party.
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