US Provides $500 Million in Security Aid to Philippines

The United States will provide $500 million in military aid to the Philippines, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Manila to reaffirm US support, said on Tuesday.

“We will provide an additional $500 million (…) to the Philippines to strengthen our security cooperation,” Blinken said at a press conference.

Blinken stressed that this kind of assistance is provided only “once in a generation.”

The amount, which will be allocated to the Philippines, is part of a broader aid package (two billion dollars) aimed at “regional territories” (Asia) and approved last April by the United States House of Representatives.

Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met on Tuesday with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has staunchly opposed Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea.

Tensions between the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines have escalated in recent months, particularly over the ownership of the Second Tomas Atoll (Ayungin Shoal Bai Ko May, in Vietnamese).

Filipino soldiers are stationed on the atoll where Manila deliberately ran aground a ship in 1999 to assert its sovereignty claims.

The People’s Republic of China claims a large number of islands in the South China Sea compared to the claims of other neighboring countries (the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia).

The two senior U.S. administration officials then held talks with their Philippine counterparts, Enrique Manalo and Gilberto Teodoro, respectively, as part of discussions aimed at consolidating the defense relationship between the United States and the Philippines.

The two countries have a mutual defense treaty in place since the 1950s.

The visit to Manila follows the Philippine president’s trip to Washington in April.

Then the first trilateral summit between the leaders of Japan, the Philippines and the United States took place.