HONOLULU: Damage to Philippine vessels and injuries to their crew in the South China Sea is “irresponsible behaviour” in disregard of international law, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday (May 2), weighing in on the latest flare-up involving China.
Manila and Beijing have traded barbs almost daily since Tuesday’s confrontation at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, where China’s coast guard used water cannon against two vessels from the Philippines, prompting outrage from its government.
“We’ve been very clear to everyone, to include Beijing, that the kind of behaviour that we’ve seen, where Filipino crews are put in danger … sailors have been injured and property damaged, that is irresponsible behaviour,” Austin told a joint press conference in Hawaii.
Austin reiterated the United States would continue to support its former colony the Philippines, as outlined in a 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty.
“Our commitment to the treaty is ironclad and we stand with the Philippines,” he said after a meeting with defence counterparts of the Philippines, Australia and Japan.
Appearing alongside Austin, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro refused to speculate about the conditions in which Manila might invoke the treaty, saying that would be a “political decision”.
