{"id":62047,"date":"2020-02-14T16:17:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62047"},"modified":"2020-02-14T16:17:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:17:36","slug":"top-us-commander-warns-philippines-rift-could-hurt-terrorism-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62047","title":{"rendered":"Top US commander warns Philippines rift could hurt terrorism fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SYDNEY, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A top US commander warned\u00a0ending a security pact with Philippines<\/a>\u00a0would hurt counter-terrorism efforts in the country’s restive south, putting him at odds with commander-in-chief Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington’s top military officer in Asia-Pacific Admiral Philip Davidson said he hoped Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to scrap a deal allowing US forces to be based in the country would be rethought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manila has given “180 day notice so we have some time for diplomatic efforts”, Davidson said at an event in Sydney. “I hope we can get to a successful outcome.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has said he would be “fine”<\/a> with the end of the visiting forces agreement as it would save the United States “a lot of money”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Davidson insisted the move would hamper military operations in Duterte’s home island of Mindanao –\u00a0where separatist and Islamist violence has killed some 100,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our ability to help the Philippines in their counter-violent extremist fight in the south, our ability to train and operate within the Philippines and with Philippines armed forces would be challenged without that visiting forces agreement,” he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though a landmark peace deal with the largest of the rebel groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was sealed in 2019, the most brutal extremist factions were not included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those groups include the Daesh-aligned BIFF and Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom gang that has been behind some of the nation’s deadliest attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late December at least 17 people – including soldiers – were injured in a dual hand grenade and IED attack on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rotating deployment of US troops in the country – coupled with a long-standing mutual defence pact and regular military exercises – is also seen as a bulwark against rising Chinese influence in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson praised the efforts of Indonesia in fending-off Chinese poaching in their waters and called for further cooperation between Pacific nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m optimistic that the region is not only waking-up to that aggressive behaviour but, more importantly, beginning to take a stand against,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned Australia to be aware of the threat of a Chinese base in the Pacific, which would help project Beijing’s influence well beyond its territorial waters. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SYDNEY, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A top US commander warned\u00a0ending a security pact with Philippines\u00a0would hurt counter-terrorism efforts in the country’s restive south, putting him at odds with commander-in-chief Donald Trump. Washington’s top military officer in Asia-Pacific Admiral Philip Davidson said he hoped Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to scrap a deal allowing US forces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62047"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}