Biden promised Asian countries to protect them from any attack by China

Joe Biden has vowed to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea. The US president called the Philippines and Japan’s defense commitments “unbreakable” during the first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo.

Hosting his first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo amid rising tensions with Beijing, Biden vowed to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea.

“The United States’ defense commitments to Japan and the Philippines are unshakable,” the US president said Thursday at a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

As The Guardian notes, the White House summit comes after repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed waterway have raised fears of a wider conflict.

“Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or military forces in the South China Sea would violate our mutual defense treaty,” Biden said.

The US President made a similar commitment when he received the President of the Philippines at the White House last year, The Guardian recalls.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, rejecting competing claims from several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines.

China’s so-called gray area of ​​harassment included firing military lasers at the Philippine Coast Guard, firing water cannons at ships and ramming Philippine ships near the Second Thomas Shoal, which is claimed by both Manila and Beijing.

In 1999, Manila deliberately grounded a World War II-era ship, establishing a permanent military presence there.

Chinese coast guard ships also regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea near Taiwan.

Rising tensions have prompted Biden to step up alliances in the region.

Gathered around a horseshoe-shaped wooden table in the Grand East Room of the US Presidential Residence, the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines called the meeting “historic.”

Without mentioning China by name, members of the tripartite pact described their alliance as the basis for peace and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region as a counterweight to Beijing.

Current Philippine President Marcos, seen as closer to Washington than his more China-friendly predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, said they share an “unwavering commitment to a rules-based international order.”

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said that “multi-level cooperation is important” and that “today’s meeting will go down in history.”

A railler against “authoritarian” China, Democrat Biden, 81, also held separate talks with Marcos, 66, the son and namesake of the former Philippine dictator.

The joint summit came a day after Biden hosted a lavish state visit to Japanese President Kishida, during which he announced a historic revamp of defense ties aimed at countering a resurgent China.

In a direct warning of the risks posed by China’s rise, Kishida said Japan, stripped of its military rights after World War II, was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.

China responded by saying the United States and Japan had “tarnished” its reputation during Kishida’s state visit.

Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said Washington and Tokyo “attacked China over Taiwan and maritime issues, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs and seriously violated the basic norms governing international relations.”

Japan and the Philippines are the latest Asia-Pacific allies Biden has hosted, and he was joined by Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at Camp David in August.

But Biden has also taken steps to resolve tensions with China, holding a two-hour phone call with President Xi Jinping last week following a face-to-face meeting in San Francisco in November.

On Wednesday, Biden said the significant improvement in defense ties with Japan was “purely defensive in nature” and “not directed at any one country or threat to the region.”