Philippines backtracks on US defense deal

The Philippines has suspended its decision to scrap a two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States for a second time as the allies work on a long-term mutual defense arrangement, Manila’s foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.

The new deadline will fall in the early days of US president-elect Joe Biden’s term.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the extra six months “to enable us to find a more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement on how to move forward in our mutual defense,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in a statement.

The Philippines is a treaty ally of the United States with several military agreements dependent on the VFA, which provides the legal framework for which Washington’s troops can operate on a rotational basis in the Southeast Asian nation.

Duterte had notified Washington in February that he was canceling the deal amid outrage over a senator and ally being denied a US visa. The initial six-month suspension of the Philippines’ abrogation of the VFA expires in December.