Ending VFA not mentioned in statement after Washington meeting of Locsin, Biegun

January 31, 2020

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr met with a senior official of the US State Department on Thursday, but a statement did not mention the Philippines informing Washington it would be terminating a 21-year-old Visiting Forces Agreement.

Instead, the statement said both countries are committed to continue their long-standing alliance.

Locsin met with Deputy State Secretary Stephen Biegun on Thursday, almost a week  after President Rodrigo Duterte sought the scrapping of the agreement following the cancellation of  the US visa of his former police chief and now senator Roland Dela Rosa, who carried out the government's anti-drug war.

Before departing for the US, Locsin and Malacanang said the Philippines has started the process of terminating the VFA, a 1999 treaty governing the presence of American forces with or without exercises with Filipino soldiers.

"In their introductory meeting, Deputy Secretary Biegun and Foreign Secretary Locsin reaffirmed the value of the US-Philippine alliance based on the deep, historic friendship and mutual respect between our two countries," the US statement said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Locsin's counterpart, is in the United Kingdom.

"They also discussed the importance of that partnership to face current global health challenges," the statement said.

The two officials, it added, called for the denuclearization of North Korea and expressed commitment to ensure a "free and open Indo-Pacific in which all countries prosper side by side as sovereign, independent states." DMS