US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to respect international law and guaranteed that any attack on the Philippines would trigger a US military response in the South China Sea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made this statement on the sixth anniversary of the International Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling in favor of the Philippines over disputed maritime boundaries.
“We reaffirm that an armed attack on the Armed Forces of the Philippines … would trigger U.S. mutual defense commitments,” Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday. Mutual defense commitments stem from a 1951 treaty between the US and the Philippines.
“We again call on the People’s Republic of China to abide by its obligations under international law and stop its provocative behavior,” the US Secretary of State added.
Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said on Tuesday that the court’s 2016 findings “are indisputable.”
The remarks come a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned leaders at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, against being used as “pawns” by major powers.
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