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The financial aid comes two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. participated in a trilateral summit  with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime MInister Fumio Kishida in Washington D.C., a meeting held amid China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.

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Katrina Domingo

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA — The Philippines is set to receive some $500 million in military aid from the United States on Tuesday, during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Manila.</p><p>The high-ranking American officials are expected to announce the “$500 million in foreign military financing through the recent national security supplemental passed by Congress in the spring,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/4/15/us-to-boost-military-support-for-ph-more-joint-patrols-coming-1315">RELATED: US to boost military support for PH, more joint patrols coming</a></div><p>“This unprecedented provision of security assistance, which is an order of magnitude greater than what we&#x27;ve recently provided to the Philippines on an annual basis will be a critical enabler of the Philippine defense moderation already underway,&quot; a senior US defense official said.</p><p>The financial aid comes two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. participated in a trilateral summit  with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime MInister Fumio Kishida in Washington D.C., a meeting held amid China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.</p><p>Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez earlier said that Tokyo and Washington have committed to help Manila modernize the Philippine Coast Guard, a civilian unit tasked to patrol and undertake resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea.</p><p>The defense modernization aid is also “going to help us modernize not only our armed forces and air force but also our navy and our coast guard,&quot; Romualdez said in an earlier interview with ANC.</p><p>Before a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, the Philippines’ defense headquarters, Blinken and Austin first traveled to Malacañang to pay a courtesy visit on Marcos Jr.</p><p>“In Manila, Austin and Blinken will also build upon recent strides in the long-standing U.S.-Filipino defense relationship,” the US Department of Defense said, noting that the Philippines and the US “have recently designated four new US rotational access sites in the Philippines as part of the 2023 expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which was first signed in 2014.”</p><p>“The nine sites are designed to strengthen combined training, exercises and interoperability between the two countries,” he said.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/6/1/austin-says-us-can-be-secure-only-if-asia-is-1006">READ: Austin says US &#x27;can be secure only if Asia is&#x27;</a></div><p>Austin’s trip to Manila is part of the US Defense chief’s 11th trip to the Indo-Pacific, which Washington has described as “a landmark period for US ties throughout the region.”</p><p>The 10-day trip also included a stop in Japan, where Austin met with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts for a security cooperation dialogue.</p><p>“The US has nearly doubled its military construction investments in the Indo-Pacific over the last fiscal year and has continued to make significant improvements to its force posture in the region,” the US Department of Defense said.</p><p>“The US has also led the way in uniting a broad network of partners focused on solving key regional challenges,” the agency’s statement read.</p><p>In recent months, China had clashed with the Philippines on multiple occasions over Manila’s resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded warship well within its exclusive economic zone.</p><p>Beijing had used water canons and had rammed into Philippine vessels as Chinese officials tried to stop Filipinos from conducting rotations and resupply missions in the resource-rich Ayungin shoal.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/7/21/ph-has-agreed-with-china-on-arrangement-for-resupplying-troops-on-ayungin-shoal-1839">READ: Philippines, China reach &#x27;arrangement&#x27; for resupply missions on Ayungin Shoal</a></div><p>Earlier this month, the Philippines and China agreed to a “provisional arrangement” for the resupply missions to calm tensions in the area, but Beijing warned Manila that it would “respond resolutely” should it see the Philippines “backtracking or creating complications” over the deal.</p><p>In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal had invalidated China’s 9-dash line map, which claims nearly the entire South China Sea as a part of Asia’s largest economy.</p><p>The Hague-based tribunal said that China’s claim had no legal ground noting that Beijing is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), which limits the exclusive economic zone of every nation to 12 nautical miles only.</p><p>Beijing refused to recognize the arbitral ruling and has continued to assert ownership in the strategic waterway where trillions-worth of seaborne goods pass through annually.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YW8xbKd6_FM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>The financial aid comes two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. participated in a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime MInister Fumio Kishida in Washington D.C., a meeting held amid China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.</p>

The financial aid comes two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. participated in a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime MInister Fumio Kishida in Washington D.C., a meeting held amid China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.

Philippines to receive $500M in military aid from US during Blinken, Austin visit

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Philippines to receive $500M in military aid from US during Blinken, Austin visit

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 30, 2024 10:38 AM PHT

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Armed Forces of the Philippines

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