The United States is not concerned about the Philippines’ deepening relationship with China and Russia, which has seen them for the first time provide significant amounts of military hardware to the Southeast Asian country.
This is according to US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, who spoke to reporters on Thursday.
“I’m not in any way threatened by the fact that China and Russia are also providing military assistance to the Philippines,” Kim said.
He noted that US-Philippine ties were “back to normal,” citing a resumption of regular joint military exercises.
This was after President Rodrigo Duterte called off the exercises, following what he said was US intervention in Philippine affairs.
According to Kim, the US played a “very important role” in defeating Islamic State supporters who occupied parts Marawi for five months.
“We had P-3s (surveillance planes), Grey Eagles (drones) providing crucial intelligence information to the Armed Forces of the Philippines so that they would be able to carry out operations necessary to retake Marawi,” he said.
He also said US forces provided “very useful technical advice,” especially in the area of urban warfare where they had more experience than Filipino troops.
The US, he said, also provided guns, ammunition and rubber boats to the Philippine military, while committing 750 million pesos ($14.7 million) in aid to residents forced out of their homes because of the war.
He said the US had about 100 to 200 troops based in the southern Philippines to train and advise local forces in battling Muslim extremists, but he would not elaborate on their role in Marawi.
The US and the Philippines are longtime allies, with the nations bound by a mutual defense pact.
But Duterte has sought to loosen his nation’s alliance with the US in favor of closer ties with China and Russia.
Relations have improved under Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, who has praised Duterte for his drug war. Agence France Presse