‘Better Philippines-China ties need not be at US expense’

MANILA, Philippines - The United States does not want the Philippines to choose between the US and China as Washington welcomes Manila’s improving ties with Beijing, visiting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said yesterday.

The US official said warming of Manila-Beijing relations should not come at the expense of the US.

“That’s not the way that we think,” Russel told reporters after meeting with Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“This should be addition and not subtraction,” he added.

“We don’t want countries to have to choose between US and China but we do want countries to be able to choose, to have choices, to have autonomy, to make their own decisions in keeping their own democratic values and in keeping with international law,” he pointed out.

Russel is visiting Manila with US Defense Assistant Secretary Kelly Magsamen to meet and clarify with officials President Duterte’s statement in Beijing that he is cutting military and economic ties with the US.

The senior State Department official said the US remains a steady and trusted partner and is ready to honor its commitments. “The US respects Philippine sovereignty and independence,” he added.

Russel said Yasay briefed him about the President’s visit to China last week.

“I reiterated that the US welcomes relaxation in relations between Beijing and Manila,” he said.

He said Secretary of State John Kerry has made it clear the US supports direct dialogue on the South China Sea issue, as well as negotiations between the Philippines and China as long as they are made on terms acceptable to the Philippines and consistent with international law.

During their meeting, Yasay said Russel told him about the US posing no objections to the Philippines’ engaging China in bilateral talks and forging investment agreements.

“They said they have no objections to our proceeding insofar in engaging China in more bilateral trade and investment agreements, even with respect to infrastructure development. They’ve agreed that this should be good and in pursuit of our national interest because we precisely don’t want to be dependent for our economic development on only one country or two or three countries,” Yasay said.

“But we would like to make sure that our trade relationships, investment relationships will be as expansive with all countries as possible who would like to promote this kind of relationship with our country.”

The DFA chief said he believed the US officials were satisfied with the outcome of their meeting.

“We were both happy when we came out of the meeting. I’m sure both sides were satisfied about what we did, but then again that’s not the end of it all, we will continue to engage ourselves in dialogue and discussions,” he said.

Yasay said he told Russel during the discussion that the President’s statement on separation from the US was intended to wean away the Filipino mindset from the “paradigm of dependency” and subservience to foreign interest.

“It has nothing to do with breaking our relationship with the United States, or breaking diplomatic ties. We continue to work towards strengthening our ties with the United States,” he said.

Even the President, Yasay said, had issued clarification on the matter upon his return from China.

“We will continue to respect our alliance with the United States as it is our only military ally. We will respect our treaty and associated agreements with respect to the treaty,” Yasay said.