US President Donald Trump’s administration yesterday provided precision-guided missiles and other weapons to help the Philippines battle Islamic State group-aligned militants and renewed a pledge to defend its treaty ally if it comes under attack in the disputed South China Sea.
US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien represented Trump in a ceremony at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, where he announced the delivery of the cache of missiles and bombs to the Philippine military.
Trump pledged to provide the US$18 million worth of missiles in a phone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in April.
Photo: AFP
O’Brien expressed condolences to the Philippines after back-to-back typhoons left a trail of death and devastation in the country and outlined US aid to help it battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US assistance projects normalcy in Washington’s foreign relations as Trump worked to challenge the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election, claiming he was a victim of fraud.
Duterte had asked Filipino Americans to vote for Trump, but through a spokesperson congratulated US president-elect Joe Biden for his win.
O’Brien has represented Trump in an online summit of the US and ASEAN leaders and an expanded East Asia virtual summit of heads of state, hosted by Vietnam and attended by China and Russia.
In his remarks at the turnover of US missiles in Manila, O’Brien cited the Trump administration’s role in the defeat of the Islamic State group in the Middle East and last year’s killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria, and renewed its commitment to help defeat associated militants in the southern Philippines.
“President Trump is standing with President Duterte as we combat ISIS [Islamic State] here in Southeast Asia,” O’Brien said. “This transfer underscores our strong and enduring commitment to our critical alliance.”
He expressed hope that the Philippines would continue a key security agreement that allows US forces to train in large-scale combat exercises in the country.
Duterte moved to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US early this year, but later delayed the effectivity of his decision to next year, a move O’Brien welcomed.
He said that the US stands with the Philippines in its effort to protect its sovereign rights in the South China Sea.
The Philippines announced last month that it would resume oil and gas explorations in or near the Reed Bank (Lile Bank, 禮樂灘), which lies off the country’s western coast, but is also contested by China, and Taiwan.
“They belong to the Philippine people. They don’t belong to some other country that just because they may be bigger than the Philippines they can come take away and convert the resources of the Philippine people. That’s just wrong,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien repeated US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement early this year that “any armed attack on Philippine forces aircraft or public vessels in the South China Sea will trigger our mutual defense obligations.”
The allies have a 69-year-old mutual defense treaty.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS