Acquiring submarines and other big-ticket military platforms – including weapons systems – from Russia is unhealthy to the alliance between the Philippines and the United States, a US defense official said yesterday. US Assistant Secretary of Defense and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver made the observation in reaction to the plan of the Department of National Defense (DND) to purchase submarines and some military equipment from Russia. “I think they should think very carefully about that. If they would have (to) proceed with procurement of major Russian equipment, I don’t think that’s a helpful thing to the alliance,” Schriver told journalists at a defense and security roundtable at the US embassy.

Laude, J. (2018, August 17). ‘Procurement of Russian submarines unhealthy for Philippine-US alliance’. The Philippine Star, p. 7.