EVEN if the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement is only an extension of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the United States, it provides benefits that benefit both countries, US Ambassador Philip Goldberg said Wednesday.
Goldberg said in a radio interview that the agreement was only made “controversial” because of the objections of Filipino activists, but the pact itself offers advantages to both nations.
“What we are doing is mutually beneficial,” Goldberg said. “For the Philippines, it means a closer relationship. It builds a minimum credible defense as it works to ensure maritime security and humanitarian assistance.”
“The Edca [also] allows the US to be more present in the region, helps carry out the ‘rebalance’ goal of the Obama administration. So it’s mutually beneficial,” he added.
The ambassador agreed with the decision of the Supreme Court affirming the constitutionality of the agreement because it was only an executive agreement carrying out the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement.
“These are the documents on which Edca is based. It will help us to help the Philippines do more in trying to carry out its goal of building a defense that allows it to have some assurance in its maritime space,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg granted the rare radio interview as US Secretary of State John Kerry traded barbs with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the nuclear activities of North Korea and the regional dispute over parts of the South China Sea.
China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, was infuriated by US warnings that its activities threaten the freedom of navigation in the busy commercial shipping lanes.
The US has said it takes no position on the claims, but maritime disputes should be settled peacefully and a binding code of conduct be forged with other claimant countries.
“We talked about the possibility of a diplomatic way forward and Foreign Minister Wang Yi accepted the idea that it would be worth exploring whether or not there was a way to reduce the tensions and solve some of the challenges through diplomacy,” Kerry said after his meeting with Wang.
But the US also said Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s planned trip to the Taiwanese-held island of Itu Aba is “extremely unhelpful” a US official said on Wednesday.
Ma’s office earlier announced that the president, who steps down in May, would fly to Itu Aba on Thursday to offer Chinese New Year wishes to residents on the island, mainly Taiwanese coastguard personnel and environmental scholars.
But Ma’s one-day visit to Itu Aba, known as Taiping in Taiwan, comes amid growing international concern over rising tensions in the waterway and quickly drew the ire of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
“We are disappointed that President Ma Ying-jeou plans to travel to Taiping Island,” AIT spokeswoman Sonia Urbom said in an email to Reuters.
“Such an action is extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea.”
The United States wanted Taiwan and all claimants to lower tensions, rather than taking actions that could raise them, Urbom added.
