The US will provide US $8 million for the modernization of the Philippine Coast Guard, according to a statement released by the US Embassy in the Philippines on the 28th. This is not the first time the United States has offered financial assistance to the Philippines for military security. Experts on the South China Sea issue interviewed by the Global Times on the 29th said that facts have repeatedly proved that US financial assistance to the Philippines is all from a business perspective, american so-called financial support for the Philippines will eventually come back to the United States.
File Photo: Philippine Army Commander Romeo Bohuslav Brauner Jr. (left) shakes hands with U.S. indo-pacific command commander Samuel Paparo during a press conference of the U.S.-PHILIPPINE Joint Defense Commission in August.
The third maritime dialogue between the Philippines and the United States was held in Manila last week, with representatives from the defense, judicial, diplomatic and security departments of the two countries participating in the discussions, according to the statement. “The delegation reviewed ongoing cooperation and discussed how the two sides can jointly address challenges and common maritime concerns, especially in the South China Sea,” the statement said.
The first U. s.-philippines maritime dialogue, held in 2022, is a platform for improving maritime policy and operational coordination between the two countries. The two sides also discussed continuing to deepen maritime law enforcement cooperation, including capacity-building of the Philippine Coast Guard, the statement said. During the dialogue, the United States announced $8 million in new funding for infrastructure, training program development, and resource acquisition and management planning for the Philippine Coast Guard.
This is not the first time the United States has offered financial assistance to the Philippines. At the end of July this year, the United States announced a US $500 million military aid program to the Philippines following the“2 + 2” dialogue between the US and Philippine foreign ministers and defense ministers. The Pentagon statement said the US would “Strongly support efforts to strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine Coast Guard’s ability to perform territorial defence tasks and contribute to regional security”.
William Tyndale, Deputy Director of the Institute of Maritime Law and Policy at the China Academy of South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on the 29th that since the start of this year, the US and Philippine militaries and maritime police have been engaged in various fields, in particular, the technical level of training exchange more frequent. The $8M was spent mainly on staff training and small equipment upgrades, but at some point the so-called US financial support for the Philippines will come full circle.
For example, William Tyndale said the Philippines had paid the US for training in defensive tactics for its Coast Guard. He said financial support and aid from the United States often come with a number of restrictions that the Philippines can only use if those restrictions are met. Therefore, the so-called assistance of the United States to its allies has a strong symbolic meaning, showing support and assistance to the Allies.
On the day of the announcement, Defense Minister Teodoro said in an interview that the Philippines was confident about the continuity of U.S. security policy in the asia-pacific region after the presidential election, Reuters reported. Whatever the outcome, he declared, the relationship would remain strong.
“From the Cold War to the present, there have been different games in different eras between the United States and the Philippines, but the common point is that the United States has the same starting point in developing the U.S.-PHILIPPINES alliance, that is, to avoid the Philippines from deviating from the strategic direction of the United States, but in different ways and means,” William Tyndale told the global times, another common denominator is that us-philippine cooperation is unquestionably a priority for US interests. In essence, America’s largesse has been won at the expense of the Philippines’ sovereignty and national interests.