ON SPRATLYS, CHINA TO US: LAY OFF
MANILA, JUNE 24, 2011 (MALAYA) DFA paper says PH can invoke treaty.
UNITED States forces are obliged to help defend Filipino troops, ships or aircraft under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if they come under attack in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
This is according to the Department of Foreign Affairs which, in a policy paper, said the treaty requires Washington to help defend Filipino forces if they come under attack in the Spratlys, citing US diplomatic dispatches that defined the Pacific region under the treaty as including the South China Sea.
A copy of the policy paper was seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The US Embassy in Manila declined to discuss details of when the pact would be in effect.
"As a strategic ally, the United States honors our Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines," said Alan Holst, acting public affairs officer at the embassy. "We will not engage in discussion of hypothetical scenarios."
In Beijing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai on Wednesday urged the US to stay out of territorial dispute but said if it does not want to get involved, then it should ensure that other countries do not provoke conflicts.
Cui said Washington risks getting drawn into a conflict over the competing claims should tensions in the region rise further.
Washington views the sea lanes as strategically important, and Vietnam has encouraged the United States to get involved.
The potentially oil- and gas-rich Spratly Islands have long been regarded as one of Asia's possible flashpoints for conflict.
China, the Philippines and Vietnam have been trading barbs and diplomatic protests recently over overlapping territorial claims, reigniting tension.
Complicating the issue is the role the United States could play in resolving the dispute.
The Mutual Defense Treaty signed by US and Philippine officials on Aug. 30, 1951 calls on one country to help defend the other against an external attack by an aggressor in their metropolitan territories or in the Pacific region.
Amid renewed tensions in the Spratlys, questions have emerged whether the treaty would apply if ill-equipped Philippine forces come under attack in the territory, all of which is also claimed by China. Parts of the territory also are claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. – AP
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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