By Jim Gomez
Manila, Philippines (AP) – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that Trump administration would work with allies to dissuade himself from threats around the world, including Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
Hegseth, who visited the Philippines, blamed the previous Biden administration for insufficient actions that brought attackers like China over the years. He said that the American army was rebuilt under President Donald Trump and restored his “warrior philosophy” in the region, but did not develop.
“What we are dealing with at the moment is many years of deferred maintenance, weakness, that we have to restore strength and deterrence in several places around the world,” said Hegseth at a press conference with his Philippin counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, after meeting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manille.
“There is a long line of countries in the past that have tried to test the resolution,” added Hegseth. “We are resolved at the moment … to work with our partners.”
Earlier, he told Marcos that deterrence was particularly necessary in the Indo-Pacific region “given the threats of the Communist Chinese”.
“Friends must stay on the shoulder to dissuade conflicts, to make sure that there is free navigation, whether you call it the Southern China Sea or the Western Philippines Sea,” he told Marcos.
The United States was not preparing for war, Hegseth said – while stressing that peace would be won “by force”.
The Philippines were the first judgment of HegSeth’s first trip to Asia. He must travel next to Japan, another ally of us.
Before its visit to the region, China called the United States as a “predator” and an unreliable ally.
Hegseth said the Trump administration would make more security assistance in the Philippines in addition to a fund of $ 500 million to help the Philippine soldiers modernize. US funding was announced for the first time by the previous Biden administration.
Joint war games in the United States-Philippine
The United States would also deploy an anti-Navire missile system called the Navy expeditionary ship prohibition system as well as unmanned marine ships for large-scale military exercises involving thousands of American and Philippine forces next month in the Philippines, Hegseth.
This would allow Allied forces to train together to defend Philippine sovereignty, he said.
In addition, the Allied forces have agreed to organize training for the special operations forces in the Bann province, a group of northernmost islands of the Philippin archipelago through a maritime border in Taiwan, he said.
Taiwan is the self-strict island that China considers a province and threatened to annex, forced by force if necessary.
China demands practically the entire Southern China Sea, a main world of security and global trade. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have affirmations that overlap in the water -rich and animated waters, but the confrontations have increased between the Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard and the Naval Forces in the past two years.
Hegseth said that the head of the American Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo, who directs the greatest number of American combat forces outside the American continent, has “real war plans” and was ready to work with the Allied forces to create “strategic dilemmas for the Communist Chinese who (help them) help them to reconsider, whether violence or action are something they want to undertake”.
Aside from the United States, Teodoro said the Philippines have built security alliances with other sympathetic countries for more deterrents.
“God does not like it. We must be ready to dissuade any possibility in the future for our mutual defense and the defense of freedom and international law,” said Teodoro.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy has sparked concerns in Asia about the scale and the depth of American engagement towards the region.
Under the previous administration of Biden, the United States has repeatedly warned that it was forced to help defend the Philippines if the Philippine forces, the ships and the planes undergo an armed attack, including in the Southern China Sea. Hegseth has renewed this commitment from Biden in his talks with Marcos and Teodoro.
China prevents “opening the door to a predator”
Before Hegseth’s visit, the spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry, Wu Qian, said that China is opposed to the “interference from the outdoor countries” of the Southern China Sea.
“Military cooperation in the United States-Philippines should not affect the security interests of other countries or undergo regional peace and stability,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
He added without developing that the United States has “an astonishing record to break its promises and abandon its allies” throughout its history.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun warned the Philippines separately this week “that nothing good could leave the door to a predator. Those who willingly serve as chess pieces will ultimately be deserted. ”
Hegseth, who was strongly criticized for having sent SMS to TOA Signal Group attack plans who included high -level American security officials and the editor -in -chief of Atlantic magazine, planned calm and camaraderie in Manila.
Dressed in a sweatshirt and shorts, he joined the American and Philippine forces in physical training, including the pumps, in a gymnasium after his arrival Thursday in Manila.
The American defense chief hugged his hand and laid smiling with military personnel while they flocked the thumb in photos published by the American Embassy on X.
The journalists of the Associated Press Joeal Calupitan Manila, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Christopher Bodeen in Taipei contributed to this report.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
