China banking on US officials' assurance on new PHL-US defense pact - GMA News

PHL-US sign agreement for increased US troop presence . PHL Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin (left) and US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg sign the PH-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement on Monday, April 28, at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. The new accord grants US troops access to Philippine military facilities, as well as the right to construct their own facilities, and to pre-position equipment, aircraft, and vessels. GMA News

China is banking on the assurance of top American officials that the new defense pact between the US and the Philippines is not meant to contain the rising superpower.

During a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the real intent of the defense agreement between the US and the Philippines will depend on the American government's actions.

“We hope relevant countries can do things that help countries in this region enhance mutual trust and safeguard regional peace, stability and prosperity. As to whether it [PHL-US defense agreement] is a way of containing China, it depends on what the US says and does,” the Chinese official said. [See transcript here]

He added that China and the US should respect and cooperate with each other.

“We believe that China and the US, as two countries sharing a wide range of common interests in the Asia-Pacific, should respect each other, enhance cooperation, and work with relevant countries in this region to promote regional peace, stability, development and prosperity. That is what should be done,” he said.

On Monday, Philippine and US officials inked a 10-year defense pact—formally known as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)—that will allow an enlarged rotational presence of American troops in the country.

US President Barack Obama, who visited Manila for a two-day state visit, said the American government did not enter into a new defense pact with the Philippines to counter China.

On Sunday, top US security officials also said that EDCA was not meant to address the maritime dispute between the Philippines and China over parts of the South China Sea.

For the past years, China and the Philippines have been engaged in a territorial dispute over resource-rich parts of the South China Sea, which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.

The Philippines claims that the West Philippine Sea is part of its exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China, meanwhile, is asserting its historical claim over the area through the so-called "nine-dash line," which almost covers the entire South China Sea.

The Philippines has already brought its territorial dispute with China before the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. Beijing, however, has rejected the arbitration proceedings, repeatedly insisting on bilateral talks to settle to issue. –Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMA News

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