The United States will be “a good ally” to the Philippines in responding to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, a US defense official said. Randall Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, gave the assurance as tensions rise over China’s aggressive stance toward its claims to most of the strategic waterway. Schriver, who spoke on Thursday to reporters at the US Embassy in Manila, was asked if the United States, which is bound to the Philippines by a mutual defense treaty, would help the country if China invaded the main Filipino-occupied island in the South China Sea.

US defense exec to PH: We’ll be your 'good ally' in disputed sea. (2018, August 18). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A6.