MANILA, Philippines — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to visit the Philippines, the first stop on his first trip to the Indo-Pacific next week, for talks that will include increasing deterrence against aggression in the disputed South China Sea, a Philippine official said Friday.
Hegseth will be in Manila on March 28-29 to meet his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Talks will touch on increasingly assertive actions by Beijing in the South China Sea and “more significant support” to Philippine security forces by the Trump administration, Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez told The Associated Press.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy thrust has triggered concerns about the scale and depth of U.S. commitment to the region under his new term.
“It’s a strong message to China on solid bilateral relations” between the U.S. and the Philippines,” Romualdez said of Hegseth’s upcoming visit.
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a major security and global trade route. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay overlapping claims to the resource-rich and busy waters, but confrontations have particularly spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in the last two years.
In his first telephone talk with Teodoro last month, Hegseth “reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. commitment to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and its importance for maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” according to a readout provided by Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot after the Feb. 5 call.
“The leaders discussed the importance of reestablishing deterrence in the South China Sea, including by working with allies and partners,” Ullyot said. “They also discussed enhancing the capability and capacity of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
After major territorial faceoffs between Chinese and Philippine forces in the disputed waters, the previous Biden administration had repeatedly warned that the U.S. is obligated to help defend the Philippines under the treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea.
Beijing has warned Washington, in return, to stay out of what it calls a purely Asian dispute and stop actions that endanger regional harmony and stability.
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