Manila, Philippines | AFP | Wednesday 25 September 2024

Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner on Wednesday backed the permanent stationing of a US missile system in his country, after China had warned deployment of the weapon was destabilizing the region.

The US Army said in April it had deployed the Typhon mid-range missile system in the northern Philippines for annual joint military exercises, but did not pull it out after the war games. The two countries are bound by a mutual defense pact.

The presence of the US missile system on Philippine soil had angered Beijing, whose forces have engaged in escalating confrontations in recent months with the Philippines over disputed reefs and waters in the South China Sea.

"If I were given the choice, I would like to have the Typhons here in the Philippines forever because we need that for our defense," Brawner told reporters on the sidelines of a defense exhibit in Manila.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun warned in June that the Typhon deployment was "severely damaging regional security and stability".

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, speaking to reporters at the same event as Brawner, would neither confirm nor deny that the Typhon system was here to stay.

"They are using reverse psychology in order to deter us from building up our defensive capabilities," Teodoro said, urging Beijing to stop interfering in Philippine affairs.

"They must be the ones setting an example. Destroy their nuclear arsenal, remove their ballistic capability, demolish their Mischief Reef and the other artificial islands that they made," he said, referring to artificial islands Beijing built over disputed South China Sea reefs.

"Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house."

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis.

President Joe Biden and many other top US officials have consistently expressed Washington's "ironclad" commitment to defend the Philippines.