MANILA, Philippines — Days before an international forum in Hawaii on land forces in the Pacific, the United States military has again reassured the Philippines of its firm defense commitment in the face of China’s untrammeled bullying, coercion and other acts of aggression at sea.
Gen. Ronald Clark, US Army Pacific Command chief, said China’s aggression is among the issues likely to be discussed at the Land Forces Pacific Symposium (LANPAC) in Hawaii on May 13-15, where 32 delegates from various nations as well as 16 army chiefs, including Philippine Army commanding general Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, are expected to attend.
“We are a treaty ally with the Philippines as well and we are committed as an ally to continue to work with them to ensure the sovereignty of the Philippines,” Clark told reporters at an online press briefing yesterday.
“We have worked very closely with them, you know, really day to day, to work through for the dialogue necessary and the coordination necessary and interoperability between the Philippine armed forces and our own to work through some of the challenges associated with some of the claims being made on their sovereign territory,” he added.
Clark said he and Galido would be sitting in one of LANPAC’s panel discussions aimed at bringing together representatives from Indo-Pacific nations to address critical security challenges, the US Army’s commitment to security cooperation with its allies and partners and how to solve complex challenges in the region with members of academia and industry.
“Again, this is Philippine sovereign territory, I’m not going to speak for the government of the Philippines and what actions they may take in this case, but again, as a treaty ally, we stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they work through challenges to not just features in the South China Sea, but their sovereign territory at large,” he stressed.
Clark, without specifically mentioning China, said that what the US forces “have been seeing across the region is actions by countries that are bullying their neighbors.”
“They continue to engage in territorial disputes that are illegal, they continue to coerce their neighbors in ways that are unhelpful,” he added.
Clark said what the US wants to achieve is to be “a partner of choice, specifically in the security realm, because you know our ability to be able to help our partners understand that there’s another option, an opportunity to partner with both the United States army in the Pacific and our like-minded partners there as well across our region.”
The US military official said next week’s event “comes on the heels of our Secretary of Defense’s recent visit to Indo-Pacific, where he spoke frequently about how the United States maintains steadfast commitments to our allies and partners in the region,” referring to US defense chief Pete Hegseth.
