"If you like your defense treaty, you can keep your defense treaty. Period."
Posted on 05/27/2015 7:03:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told his Philippine counterpart on Wednesday that Washington's pledge to defend the Pacific nation remains "ironclad" and called for an end to land reclamation in the South China Sea, officials said.
In talks in Hawaii with Voltaire Gazmin, Philippine secretary of national defense, the Pentagon chief "reaffirmed" the strong ties between the two countries and discussed territorial disputes in the contested waters of the South China Sea, where Beijing has been at loggerheads with the Philippines and other states in the region.
Citing Washington's mutual defense treaty with Manila, Carter "stressed that the US commitment to defend the Philippines is ironclad," the Pentagon said in a statement.
The meeting came as Carter embarks on a tour of Asia and amid rising tensions over Beijing's massive effort to build artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Carter and Gazmin "agreed that all parties involved in the South China Sea should seek a peaceful resolution of disputes, immediately halt land reclamation, and stop further militarization of disputed features," the statement said....
(Excerpt) Read more at gmanetwork.com ...
-——Filipinos have not forgotten WWII. ——
Back in 1966, I worked on the 12th floor in the Sarmiento building on Ayala Ave in Makati.
Several floors below were the offices of the Mitsubishi corporation. When the boss got on the elevator the Phillippinos would crush themselves back against the elevator walls to avoid him. He and Mitsubishi were involved in war reparations.
Yes, it is ironic.
Perhaps the younger generation of Filipinos is more tolerant toward Japan. I knew some Filipionos when I was growing up in California in the 1950s. I can’t print what they thought about the Japanese.
He is not one of us...
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