Philippine is an important ally of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, the Philippines had long provided military base for US military stationed in the Philippines. Later, after the US military withdrew from the Philippines, the two sides signed the " Visit Force Agreement" of the United States and the Philippines, which is actually a reciprocal military agreement, which clearly states that when the US military visits the Philippines for training or exercises, the Philippines has the obligation to provide bases, supplies and other assistance to the US military, while the US has the obligation to provide military protection to the Philippines. The last Philippine president, , Duterte , was tough on the United States when he was in office, and insisted on not visiting the United States for 6 years, which also made people downplay the Philippines' original identity - an American allies.
However, even for 6 years, it was just a moment in the relationship between the United States and the Philippines. Duterte stepped down and After Marcos took office, more contact between the United States and the Philippines became. Moreover, some intriguing things began to happen. According to reports from reference information, the Philippines' Ministry of Defense recently confirmed to the outside world that the Philippines canceled the contract to provide 16 m-17 helicopters to the Philippine Air Force with , because of "changes in priority brought about by global political changes."
It is said that the contract was signed by both the Philippines and Russia in November last year and is worth about US$230 million. After the Philippines announced this decision, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines then stated that the U.S. will provide $100 million to the Philippines as support for the "military modernization." To put it bluntly, it is to "reward" to the Philippines. Although the news is not long, it can still make people faintly smell the smoke of the US-Russian struggle behind it, which can be seen from at least two points.
. If it were just an arms business between the Philippines and Russia, the Philippines probably wouldn't have such courage. It broke the contract without authorization after signing a contract with Russia less than a year ago. Moreover, although the Philippines' reasons are relatively tactful - the changes in priority brought about by political changes, it is not difficult to understand with a little analysis that "global political changes" refer to the occurrence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and "leading to change in priority" refers to the fact that as an ally, under the background of the US sanctions on Russia, the Philippines is still doing arms business with Russia, and of course it will be put under pressure from the US side. The Philippines can only break the contract and has no other way.
Because not to mention small allies like the Philippines, even Britain, France and Germany can only "follow the orders" in front of the United States.
Another, the United States is also doing very directly. As soon as the Philippines announced the termination of the contract with Russia, Washington stated that it would provide 100 million US dollars to Manila . At this time, it doesn’t matter what “reason” this 100 million US dollars is given to the Philippines. People can understand it as “the reward for the Philippines’ rejection of Russia.” In fact, this is not the first time the United States has done such a thing, and it is also aimed at Russia, but the other two American allies - Turkey and India, responded completely differently from the Philippines.
When Türkiye and Russia signed the S-400 introduction contract, White House also issued a threat, asking Turkish to cancel the contract and instead introduce the US air defense system . However, Türkiye does not take the US's trick at all and insists on introducing Russian S-400. The US then issues sanctions on Türkiye, kicking it out of the F-35 customer base. Türkiye's response was to continue to discuss the second batch of S-400 introduction contracts with Russia, and also said, "The United States does not sell F-35, we can introduce Russian fifth-generation machine ."
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, when the United States and its allies were busy sanctioning Russia, the "quasi-alliance" India was rushing to introduce Russian energy. The White House was unhappy. The President Biden and criticized him by name, "After the conflict, most of the allies performed well, and only India was not very reliable."
However, New Delhi 's response is that it not only increases the efforts to introduce Russian energy, but also clearly states that "India's per capita annual income is only US$2,000. We cannot afford high-priced energy. It is beneficial to the interests of India's national interests to introduce discounted oil from Russia. Why not? How to sanction Russia is the United States' own business."
In the end, the United States was unable to treat Turkey or India, because they did not do anything wrong, it was related to national interests, so why did they have to listen to the arrangements of the United States? There is a possibility that the Philippines broke the contract with Russia this time, and the Marcos government also believed that this was beneficial to the Philippines. Because, on the one hand, the Philippines "slightly speaks lightly" and dare not disobey the US "order" like Turkey and India; on the other hand, the Philippines Originally, it was an ally of the United States. Torn up the contract with Russia is equivalent to expressing a statement to the United States, and you can get rewards and get compensation back.
is like this, and the Philippines has no blame for doing this, but as a national system, taking contracts as a joke may lose integrity in the international community. Previously, Australia tore up the military contract with France at the instigation of the United States, which was a lesson for the Philippines, and the Philippines would not be confused.
