General
As Alliances Fray Under Trump, This Nation Is Confident of U.S. Ties
Officials in the Philippines say that President Trump will not pull back from defense commitments because Manila and Washington have a common adversary.
We are not Ukraine.
That is the overarching message from officials in the Philippines, who say that they are certain they have the full backing of the United States despite President Trump’s dramatic shifts in foreign policy, including his stunning blowup with Ukraine’s leader. Their confidence, they say, comes from the fact that both Washington and Manila have a common adversary: China.
Mr. Trump is embroiled in a trade war with China, while the Philippines has been involved in increasingly tense standoffs with China in the South China Sea over Beijing’s expansive territorial claims. Manila’s biggest deterrent against China is a mutual defense treaty with the United States. Last month, Washington restored about $400 million in military assistance to the Philippines that had been suspended as part of Mr. Trump’s freeze on foreign aid.
That was the “best proof” that ties between the two countries were intact, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippines defense secretary, said in an interview in Manila on Tuesday, hours after Mr. Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Mr. Teodoro and his colleagues have spoken with members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet and received assurances that Washington remains committed to the Philippines and the defense treaty.
“We have no reason to doubt the commitments made by the highest officials of the Trump administration,” said Mr. Teodoro, who flew to Washington in January to meet with Mike Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser.
But Mr. Trump has exhibited a willingness to tear apart decades-old alliances. He has imposed tariffs on Canada, undermined Europe and rebuffed NATO. While he has not publicly addressed ties with the Philippines, or the broader Indo-Pacific, his actions have caused jitters here.
