US envoy assures PH on SCS row: 'We have your back'

United States (US) Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson maintained that Washington is ready to help the Philippines amid its maritime row with China over the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea, but also stressed that the goal is to “deter conflict.” “We have your back but our mutual goal is to deter conflict, not to instigate conflict,” she said during an interview with GMA Integrated News on Friday, March 10. The envoy emphasized that all the former colonial power and the Philippines’ top defense ally wants is “fair competition” in the resource-rich region as China inches closer and straddles between the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters of Pag-asa Islands. While Carlson said she cannot speak for China, she cited that US President Joe Biden wants Washington to focus “on our allies no matter what PRC (People’s Republic of China) is doing.” “It’s not about what PRC is doing, what threatening behaviors. It is about making sure that we all play by the rules of the game in the international arena,” the envoy added. Her comments came after the Chinese Embassy in Manila refuted the remarks from US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, who questioned the economic cooperation between Manila and Beijing and claimed that the expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with four more bases would help address security concerns in the region. The ambassador was asked about China's deployment of a warship near the Pag-asa Islands. During the interview, Carlson also revealed that the Basa Air Base in Pampanga—one of the five existing EDCA sites in the country—will undergo rehabilitation to become useful and keep “the people safe.” Despite the 2016 Arbitral Award that invalidated China’s sweeping claims of the islands and features of the region, Beijing has continued building military structures there and sending fishing and military vessels. This pushed the United States to reiterate the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) that tasks Washington to come to Manila’s defense in case of “armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the Coast Guard in the South China Sea.”