Defense Secretary Ash Carter implied Wednesday that the loss of the Philippines as a U.S. ally would not have a major effect on U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Our strategy … is strong and isn’t dependent on any single one of our friend or allies out there, and we have many,” Carter said at a question and answer session with U.S. troops at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Relations between the United States and the Philippines have soured in recent weeks, as the country’s firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte has increasingly denounced the U.S. while threatening to sever military ties and expel U.S. troops.
Responding to a question from a Marine staff sergeant who had recently trained with the Philippines military, Carter said the U.S. has not given up on repairing the strained relationship.
“The Philippines is a long-standing ally of the United States. We continue to regard them as an ally,” Carter said. “Obviously we are having discussion with the government of the Philippines about the future of that.”
In Manila Wednesday, Duterte reacted angrily to news that a planned sale of 26,000 rifles to the Philippines had been halted by the U.S. in part because of congressional opposition.
“Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said. “Son of a bitch, we have many home-made guns here. These American fools.”
Duterte indicated he could easily get weapons from Russia or China. “Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we’ll give you,” he said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said he was barred by law from discussing what he called “potential commercial licenses,” but insisted that despite Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric, the government-to-government relations between the two countries remains strong.
“There are longstanding relationships that we have nurtured over the years with figures in his government, and those relationships are still there, and they’re still vibrant,” he said.
“All I can do is reaffirm again how dedicated we are to our bilateral relationship with the Philippines, to our people-to-people ties with the Filipino people,” Kirby said. “And in fact, how seriously we take our commitments from a security perspective through the defense treaty that we share.”
