US, PH officials meet in Washington for talks amid new tension with China

by Bernadette e taMayo ManilaTimes.net

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the growing military ties with the Philippines on Tuesday, April 11 before heading to Vietnam and Japan days after a new flare-up of tensions with China over

Taiwan.

The Philippines, Vietnam and Japan all have longstanding territorial disputes with China that have grown more intense in recent years as Beijing flexes its muscle.

Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet jointly in Washington with their Philippine counterparts in the first such joint talks in seven years between the United States and its former colony.

Last week, the Philippines announced four more military bases that U.S. forces will be able to use, including one on the northern Luzon island, just 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Taiwan -- a stark shift from