Defense pact review before year ends

I don’t know what will be the outcome, but it will be a joint cooperative endeavor.

The Philippines and the United States have both expressed openness to revisit “ambiguous” provisions of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) to make the decades-old pact more adaptable to the present time.

In their joint press briefing at the Department of National Defense (DND) in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and his American counterpart Secretary Mark Esper said a review of the MDT is something both sides are open to discussing.

“I was actually the one who first brought out the idea of revisiting the MDT because in my opinion, it has been made at the height of the Korean war and the situation then compared to now is different,” Lorenzana stated.

According to Lorenzana, provisions which may require some tweaking would be taken up in one of the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) meetings before the year ends.

“I don’t know what will be the outcome, but it will be a joint cooperative endeavor,” noted Lorenzana.

In response, Esper echoed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s pronouncement in his visit to the country last March that the MDT’s applicability covers “the entire Pacific region,” including the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea.

As stipulated in the 67-year-old pact, determination of a threat by an armed attack to either of the parties’ territorial integrity, political independence or national security is threatened by armed attack in the Pacific shall be acted upon.

There are gray areas, however, when it comes to categorically saying what is deemed as an armed attack or if the treaty would also cover one country defending the other when it comes to territorial rows, such as the one in which the Philippines is involved in with China.

A review, said Esper, would definitely shed more light on the position of the United States as it adapts to the “changes in the environment and world situation.”

“It’s always good to look at these things from time to time, review and clarify and strengthen it based on changes in the environment and world situation. And clearly, as you may know, the US adopted a new national defense strategy last year that reflects our assessment that we are now in an era of power competition and it requires us to look at the world differently, deal with different capabilities, and reposition ourselves and to emphasize the importance of this,” Esper asserted.

“I think for all those reasons, it could do so (to do a review) and for that we are such strong and capable allies and we have such great friendship between our militaries and our peoples,” he added.

Esper likewise disclosed that they have agreed to expand cooperation and strengthen the US and the Philippines’ 70-year-old alliance “that ensures both countries’ mutual security and contribute to the peace, stability and economic opportunity throughout the region.”

Both defense chiefs have also laid out plans on how the US can help modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines, improve maritime security capabilities and domain awareness and provide humanitarian assistance.

The shared commitment to further deepen and expand the bilateral defense cooperation by reinforcing respective national defense capabilities and interoperability, enhancing joint military exercises, disaster response initiatives and cybersecurity awareness, and improving defense infrastructure through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was also reiterated by the officials.

“Our alliance with the Philippines is absolutely vital for the safety and security in the Indo-Pacific which is our priority region. I’m confident that as we continue to work together, we’ll meet the challenges of the future together and preserve the gains that both our nations have worked so hard to achieve,” Esper concluded.

In a statement, the US Embassy said that Lorenzana and Esper reaffirmed the commitment of both nations to counter terrorism and violent extremism.

“The United States and the Philippines will build upon the existing foundation by continuing to improve information sharing and enhancing cooperation to prevent terrorist attacks and the transit of foreign terrorist fighters in and through the Philippines,” the embassy stated.