July 30 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III discussed threats to peace while affirming U.S. support for the Philippines in Manila on Tuesday.
The members of President Joe Biden‘s Cabinet met with the Philippines Secretary for Foreign Affairs Enrique Manolo and Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. in what has become known as a 2+2 ministerial dialogue between the two nations.
The respective nation’s secretaries “outlined specific measures to further operationalize President [Ferdinand] Marcos’s and President [Joe] Biden’s ‘shared vision of partnership, peace and prosperity,'” the four secretaries said in a joint statement.
Those measures include fortifying the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two nations to protect either nation’s “armed forces, aircraft and public vessels — including those of their coast guards — anywhere in the South China Sea.”
The four secretaries agreed it’s important to modernize the Philippine’s military defense and civilian law enforcement capabilities to improve the individual and collective national securities of the Philippines and the United States.
They also agreed to welcome Japan and Australia in coordinating defense and security in the region.
The secretaries committed to allocating $500 million in foreign military financing through the U.S. Congress to help the Philippines modernize its armed forces and enable the Philippines Coast Guard to effectively defend territorial waters while contributing to regional security.
They also agreed to implement the newly finalized Philippines-Security Sector Assistance Roadmap that was finalized Monday in Manila.
The agreement outlined how the United States can help the Philippines improve its armed forces and Coast Guard with “capacity-building efforts, programs and activities.”
Blinken and Austin also met with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday and “further discussed their shared commitment to upholding international law in the South China Sea,” Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken and Austin “underscored the United States’ ironclad commitments to the Philippines under our Mutual Defense Treaty,” Miller said.
The Philippines is facing its greatest external threat since the Japanese invaded and took control of the island nation from 1942 until its liberation by U.S. forces in 1945.
The Philippines was a U.S. territory when Japan seized control but was made an independent state following the U.S. liberation on July 4, 1946.
The latest threat is from the People’s Republic of China, which has laid claim to most of the South China Sea that separates the Philippines from Southeast Asia.
The 2+2 ministerial dialogue is an annual diplomatic summit begun under former President Donald Trump in 2018 and typically involves two high-ranking members of the Philippines’ president’s cabinet and two members of the U.S. president’s cabinet.
The dialogue is one of several planned meetings between Blinken and Austin and high-ranking members of several nations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and the Philippines.