Philippines reverses decision to terminate military pact with U.S.

[Boats]

Philippines reverses decision to terminate military pact with U.S.
By: Camille Elemia - Axiso News - 06-02-20 (35m ago)
Re: https://www.axios.com/philippines-su...2b3dd50b0.html

The Philippines has announced that it no longer plans to terminate a major military pact with the U.S. — at least for now.

Why it matters: The Visiting Forces Agreement — which allows U.S. and Philippine troops to conduct joint exercises and share intelligence — will resume at least for the next six months amid China's continued militarization in the South China Sea.

Driving the news: The Philippines' Foreign Affairs department on Monday informed the U.S. that "in light of political and other developments in the region, the termination of the agreement is hereby suspended."

The U.S. Embassy welcomed the move: "Our long-standing alliance has benefited both countries, and we look forward to continued close security and defense cooperation with the Philippines."
Flashback: Manila sent a notice of termination to Washington in February following the cancellation of a U.S. visa for Ronald dela Rosa, a close aid to President Rodrigo Duterte seen as the architect of Duterte's deadly drug war.

The announcement that the VFA would be terminated led to concerns about U.S. deterrence capacity in the critical South China Sea, where the territorial claims of China, the Philippines and four other countries overlap.
The big picture: The Philippines is America's oldest military ally in Asia, but the relationship has deteriorated under Duterte, who openly prefers to partner with China.

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Personal note: Somethings afoot for this guy to recall his China decision??? We aren't getting all the facts (and most likely never will). This Duterte is a real dirt bag and how and why he's still in office is disturbing.

I'm happy that the U.S. is still there - but what did we have to give Duterte to keep us there - or did China renege - or did they have second thoughts about working with Duterte - or did his people use a little leverage to make him flip back to the U.S.? I suspect once China got in PI - they would surely have eliminated Duterte once they established their bases and were fully functional - just maybe Duterte finally realized that!!?

Loosing those bases would have been the worse thing to happen to the US military.

NOTE! However a 2nd report just popped up (see blow): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...142554480.html

You may want to read up on the reasons for the U.S. Extension of 180 days. It seems that China is taking over some of PI's islands of which Duterte didn't appreciate - the mainland would be next - and he'd be dead meat as well as the people's of PI. He's nuts if he thinks he can work a deal with China - they will rip him a new ass and mount it on a wall for all to see! He's playing with FIRE & his People's lives. He's way out of his league to think otherwise!!

Boats