US raises Philippines military aid

The United States has raised its military aid to the Philippines in 2015 to $79 million, the US ambassador said on Wednesday, as tension rises in the region over China’s new assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Since 2002, the United States has provided the Philippines with nearly $500 million in military assistance as well as various types of military equipment.

“We have upped our foreign military funding for the Philippines,” ambassador Philip Goldberg told ANC television, without giving a percentage. “It will be somewhere in the range of $79 million this year. It’s increasing and what has been proposed is something called a maritime security initiative in the region.”

China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Reclamation work and the building of three airfields and other facilities on some of China’s artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago have alarmed the region and raised concern in Washington that China is extending its military reach deep into maritime Southeast Asia.

Washington announced earlier it had allocated $50 million in aid to Manila in 2015. The Philippines remains one of the largest recipients of military aid in the region, focusing on building capability for the Navy and Air Force to guard the South China Sea.

Last week, before attending a regional economic summit, US President Barack Obama boarded a Hamilton-class cutter converted into a frigate by the Philippines, a display of maritime security support for its closest ally in Southeast Asia.

Mr Goldberg said the third Hamilton-class coast guard cutter would be arriving late 2016 while an old maritime research ship would be transferred by the middle of 2016.

Meanwhile, Japanese defence minister General Nakatani on Tuesday expressed his support for the US Navy’s sailing of a warship close to one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Gen Nakatani told reporters after meeting Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, that the US military was at the forefront of the international community’s efforts to protect open, free and peaceful oceans in the South China Sea. He added he expressed Japan’s support for the United States’ actions to Admiral Harris.

“The international community will not allow the unilateral changing of the status quo by force, and our country believes the same,” Gen Nakatani said. “The US believes the same, too, and we agreed on this point.”

The United States Navy in October sailed a guided missile destroyer inside what China claims is a 12-mile territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands. The move was a challenge to what the United States considers Beijing’s “excessive claim” of sovereignty in those waters.

He said Japan would continue to help countries in the region bolster their own maritime forces. Japan is giving 10 patrol ships to the Philippine coast guard. “We have proactively participated in activities promoting... stability, including helping build the capacity of countries around the South China Sea.”