The Philippines says the US has promised to help if there is a maritime attack

Photographer: Ted Aljibe / AFP / Getty Images

The Philippines said the government of U.S. President Joe Biden promised that the United States would help the Southeast Asian nation if there was an armed attack on the South China Sea, repeating a promise made by the administration of former President Donald Trump.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Philippine Secretary of State Teodoro Locsin in a call that the 1951 mutual defense treaty between the two nations “will apply to armed attacks against the Philippines. “said Manila envoy to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez in a virtual forum organized by the association of foreign correspondents.

Biden’s team claims China’s claims in quick calls to Asian allies

He US State Department, in a section statement Wednesday said Blinken spoke with Locsin about the application of the treaty “to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public ships or aircraft in the Pacific, which includes the South China Sea.”

Tranquility comes amid Beijing’s continued assertion of the claims of the South China Sea that overlap with those of Manila and other nations in the region. China recently passed a law giving more freedom to its coastguards to fire at foreign vessels, an action that could increase the risk of miscalculation in disputed waters and that the Philippines passed he protested.