Fears that US President Donald Trump will start a war with China over disputed territory in the South China Sea are overblown, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana said.
“I don’t think it will happen,” Lorenzana, 68, who spent more than a decade as defense attache and war veteran’s representative in Washington, said in an interview at his Camp Aguinaldo headquarters in Manila on Thursday. “Trump is a businessman and he knows that if war breaks out, businesses will suffer.”
Newly confirmed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing last month when he said the US would seek to prevent China from accessing facilities it built on artificial reefs in the South China Sea.
Photo: Bloomberg
Lorenzana questioned whether that was possible, saying: “How can you prevent something that’s already there?”
The Philippines has shifted toward China and Russia under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, undermining a security alliance with the US that has endured since World War II.
Both nations have pledged to support the Philippines as it embarks on a push to modernize its military to catch up with its neighbors over the next decade.
The Philippines and China are among six claimants to disputed territory in the South China Sea, a key trade route that also contains oil and gas reserves.
After years of pushing back aggressively against China’s claims — including a victory before an international tribunal last year — Duterte has adopted a softer approach toward China, which has a much stronger military.
“I’m not going to wage war over those small islands,” Lorenzana said. “Even if we have the military might, we will also think twice before we engage in a shooting war.”
Lorenzana is to ask the Philippine Congress for a defense spending increase of up to 2.5 percent of GDP from 1.5 percent, which is about half what most of the Philippines’ neighbors spend.
The government is to spend a further 85 billion pesos (US$1.7 billion) on a five-year military upgrade starting in 2018 that will enable the Philippines “to close the gap” with peers in the region, and meet challenges arising from China’s growing presence in the South China Sea, the Islamic State and Duterte’s war on drugs, Lorenzana said.
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