The increase in annual military funding is meant to help Manila resist Beijing's expansive claim over the South China Sea.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin III, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr pose ahead of their “2+2” meeting in Manila.
Mr Austin called it a “once in a generation investment” to modernise the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard. The foreign military financing falls under the national security supplemental budget earlier passed by the US Congress. Signed in 2014, the agreement allows American forces to build facilities, bring in equipment and hold joint training exercises in mutually agreed upon bases in the Philippines.
“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together, in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific, are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Mr Marcos told the US officials during their meeting on July 30.
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