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‘Unprecedented’: US pledges US$500 million in military aid to Manila, risking Beijing’s ire
- The new funding from Washington aims to modernise Manila’s armed forces amid its escalating conflict with Beijing in the South China Sea
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Manila on Tuesday to discuss regional security with their Philippine counterparts and announce half a billion dollars in military aid to its ally as it contends with an increasingly tense territorial dispute with China.
Analysts said the high-level visit and massive military funding allocation both underscored the paramount importance of both the Philippines’ alliance to the US and the South China Sea to Washington’s economic and security interests in the region.
Blinken and Austin held their annual 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue at Camp Aguinaldo with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo and Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro. During the meeting, they discussed a wide range of security issues and announced Washington’s new military funding package for Manila.
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“We’re now allocating an additional US$500 million in foreign military financing to the Philippines to boost security collaboration with our oldest treaty ally in this region,” Blinken told a joint news conference.
Blinken called it as a “once in a generation investment” to help modernise the Philippine military and coastguard.
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