The meaning of support

The recent series of high-profile expressions of support from key US officials is support for the Philippines per se, not for the Philippine position on competing claims in what has long been known as the South China Sea. But while the expressions highlight continuing American influence in the region, we should also recognize that these were the deliberately targeted results of a coordinated Philippine campaign. In other words, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario went on a diplomatic offensive last week, calling on the US Departments of State and of Defense and on the new office of the National Directorate of Intelligence—and got what we needed.

The expressions of support must be primarily understood, then, as reinforcement of a diplomatic rather than military nature. To be sure, some of the language used by the Americans had military references, and depending on how the Aquino administration follows through on Del Rosario’s meetings, could actually be converted into currency to pay for equipment and training at preferential rates. But we should make no mistake: the Americans, already wearied by two trillion-dollar wars in the last 10 years, have absolutely no interest in a shooting war in the South China Sea.

Yes, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did say, at a press briefing: “We are determined and committed to supporting the defense of the Philippines.” Yes, US Defense Undersecretary Michele Fluornoy was quoted by the Department of Foreign Affairs as reassuring Del Rosario: “We should not allow this perception that you are alone and we’re not behind you.” Yes, the DFA did quote US National Director of Intelligence James Clapper as saying “we’ll do whatever we can to help,” and as promising to improve the Philippines’ “maritime situational awareness and surveillance” capacity in the disputed area.

(The expressions of support meet the gold standard in diplomatese: categorical, eminently quotable and specific.)

But at the level where geopolitical rubber meets the diplomatic road—for instance at Saturday’s US-China dialogue in Honolulu, Hawaii—US officials have also been crystal-clear about overall US policy for the region. After the dialogue, US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the main US diplomat for East Asia, told reporters that “We want tensions to subside. We have a strong interest in the maintenance in peace and stability, and we are seeking a dialogue among all of the key players.”

Campbell was merely echoing what he had said earlier. “We’ve been very clear that the United States does not take a position on sovereignty issues.”

If one reads too much into Del Rosario’s meetings last week, one may well wonder how it is possible for the United States to both express support for the Philippines and categorically decline to get involved in “sovereignty issues.” But American policy is merely to assure (or get assurances) that freedom of navigation in the South China Sea continues to be a fact. As Campbell said: “we also have strong principles that are longstanding in the maintenance of freedom of navigation, and free and unimpeded legal commerce and the maintenance of peace and stability.”

In other words, it is in the American interest to help keep the Philippines as an active “key player” in the greater “dialogue” in the region that it is seeking. Even the timely naval exercises involving three US ships and two Philippine vessels scheduled to begin this week, in what is in fact the 17th staging of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (or Carat) exercises, should be understood in terms of diplomatic leverage, not of military force projection. For the Philippines, it is yet another expression of American support; for the United States, it is a show of unity with a regional ally. (The United States will engage in naval exercises with the Vietnamese too.)

What does all this mean for the Philippines’ regional claims? First, it means that the government is attending with vigor and dispatch to the first of the two advantages it has: diplomacy. (Law comes next.) Second, it means that the government has a chance to use US assistance to meet Philippine needs; those needs include the renewed capacity to engage China, a longstanding partner, on less unequal terms. We hope the expressions of support would strengthen the country’s capacity to forge a regional approach in finding a solution.