The Philippines will seek “more substantive” support from the United States—including possible high-end air and naval equipment – to address the “critical situation” created by China’s massive reclamation activities in the South China Sea.
In a television interview, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said he will bring up China’s actions in the audience he is seeking with US Defense Secretary Ash Carter and US Secretary of State John Kerry two weeks from now.
“We are at this point seeking additional support from the US in terms of being able to take a stronger position in defending our position which is to uphold the rule of law,” Del Rosario said.
“We need to show that the Philippines with the US as treaty allies can manifest a position that can uphold the rule of law,” he added.
President Barack Obama last week accused Beijing of bullying its smaller neighbors who have overlapping territorial claims in the disputed waters.
Del Rosario also said the US plans to send more Navy and Air Force assets to the region, which he intends to clarify with Carter.
“We have not talked about to what extent this would happen, but with those equipment you could surmise there will be US presence,” he said.
“They said in order to strengthen the re-balance they have plans of sending military equipment to the Asia-Pacific and he outlined the equipment that they will send. They are not sending it to us…they are sending it to Asia-Pacific to ensure the political and security stability of the region,” the Foreign Affairs chief added.
Del Rosario said the Philippines ran into a “dead end” in attempting to resolve the disputes with China bilaterally.
He cited as example the standoff in Scarborough Shoal in 2012 which led to about 50 bilateral negotiations that did not prosper.
“We are for bilateral talks (but) we ran into a dead end in terms of using that approach,” Del Rosario said.
“In the case of Scarborough Shoal, we had over 50 bilateral engagements with them and that did not work because the very first instance in every bilateral meeting with China they will say to you we have indisputable sovereignty over the entire South China Sea so that’s the preface. You are already put in a corner and there’s no movement that you can undertake to get out of that corner,” he added.