Vice President Kamala Harris would underscore America’s commitment to defending treaty ally the Philippines with a visit that starts Sunday and involves flying to an island province facing the disputed South China Sea.
MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Kamala Harris would underscore America’s commitment to defending treaty ally the Philippines with a visit that starts Sunday and involves flying to an island province facing the disputed South China Sea, where Washington has accused China of bullying smaller claimant nations.
Harris will underscore “the importance of international law, unimpeded commerce and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” the US official said and added, in response to a question, that Washington was not concerned how Beijing would perceive the visit. Washington and Beijing have long been on a collision course in the contested waters. While the US lays no claims to the strategic waterway, where an estimated $5 trillion in global trade transits each year, it has said that freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea is in America’s national interest.
America’s relations with the Philippines entered a difficult period under Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who threatened to sever ties with Washington and expel visiting American forces, and once attempted to abrogate a major defense pact with the US while nurturing cozy ties with China and Russia.
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