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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 11) – The Philippines will delay the repeal of the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States for another six months by order of President Rodrigo Duterte, Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Locsin said the move would allow both parties to reach a “more improved” and mutually beneficial defense agreement.
“My president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, has instructed me to transmit with due formality his decision to extend the suspension of the repeal of the Visiting Forces Agreement for another 6 months, so that we can find a better one, of mutual benefit, of mutual benefit. pleasant, more effective and lasting agreement on how to advance our mutual defense, ”wrote the country’s top diplomat in a note addressed to the White House national security adviser, Robert O’Brien.
The VFA was supposed to be removed on August 9, but the Philippine government suspended its pending termination on June 1 in light of “political and other developments in the region.”
The suspension was given an initial six-month deadline until December, but a diplomatic note previously shared by Locsin said it could also be extended for another half year.
Signed in 1998, the VFA is the first of two agreements between Washington and Manila on the treatment of their troops when they are in the United States or the Philippines. The two-decade-long military pact legally allows large numbers of US troops, ships and aircraft to enter for joint training with Filipino soldiers. It includes provisions on visa and passport policies for US troops and specifies which country will have jurisdiction over the US military who can be charged with crimes in the Philippines, a sensitive issue in the former US colony.
The two countries signed a Mutual Defense Treaty in 1951 and have been longtime allies.
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