Pact prepares way for more troops
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BUT he said that, as an Asia-Pacific nation, the United States was interested in the freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
“As a matter of international law and international norms, we don’t think coercion and intimidation is the way to manage these disputes,” he said.
Obama backed the Philippine president’s bid to take his country’s disputes with China to international arbitration, a step China opposes.
The new defense pact is a framework agreement that will pave the way for more US troops and ships to rotate through the Philippines, and for the US to place military hardware on Filipino bases.
Although there are already regular joint war games on Philippine soil and US naval visits, the agreement heralds a new era in defense ties between the longtime allies after the Philippines closed two of America’s biggest Asian bases in 1992.
Obama stressed that the pact would not result in new US bases in the Philippines but would expand US access to airfields and ports to allow forces from the two sides to train together.
The arrangement is similar to a deal with Australia to base US Marines in the northern city of Darwin, a key plank in Obama’s pivot to Asia strategy.
A dispatch carried by Xinhua news agency said the deal could “embolden Manila in dealing with Beijing.”
“The Aquino administration has made its intention clear: to confront China with US backing,” it said.
The agreement with the Philippines was signed by US ambassador to Manila Philip Goldberg and Philippine Defense Minister Voltaire Gazmin.
US President Barack Obama said yesterday he had no desire to contain or counter China despite clinching a 10-year defense pact with the Philippines which will inject US forces close to the volatile South China Sea.
In the Philippines on the final leg of an Asian tour, Obama faced a delicate task in Manila as he sought to reassure an ally concerned about China, but to avoid worsening tense Sino-US ties by antagonizing leaders in Beijing.
“We welcome China’s peaceful rise. We have a constructive relationship with China,” Obama said at a press conference with Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
“Our goal is not to counter China. Our goal is not to contain China,” Obama said, taking on suspicions that his policy of rebalancing power toward the Asia-Pacific was tantamount to encirclement.
Obama said the United States takes no specific position on territory disputes among China and its neighbors.
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