We are not Ukraine. That is the overarching message from officials in the Philippines, who say that they are certain they have the full backing of the United States despite President Trump’s dramatic shifts in foreign policy, including his stunning blowup with Ukraine’s leader. Their confidence, they say, comes from the fact that both Washington and Manila have a common adversary: China. Mr. Trump is embroiled in a trade war with China, while the Philippines has been involved in increasingly tense standoffs with China in the South China Sea over Beijing’s expansive territorial claims. Manila’s biggest deterrent against China is a mutual defense treaty with the United States. Last month, Washington restored about $400 million in military assistance to the Philippines that had been suspended as part of Mr. Trump’s freeze on foreign aid. That was the “best proof” that ties between the two countries were intact, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippines defense secretary, said in an interview in Manila on Tuesday, hours after Mr. Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine.
Source link
