MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Washington’s top diplomat and defense chief will announce $500 million in military funding Tuesday to boost Philippine defenses and progress on a proposed military intelligence-sharing pact as both allies expect China’s aggressive actions in the region to continue, a Philippine official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has fortified Manila’s decades-old treaty alliance with Washington as hostilities between Philippine and Chinese forces flared since last year in the disputed South China Sea.
Marcos hailed “very open” communication lines between Washington and Manila, adding that the two countries’ treaty alliance and key issues in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region “are continuously examined and reexamined so we are agile in terms of our responses.”
Marcos has underscored the need for a…