The Pentagon’s efforts to improve U.S. force posture in the Pacific have yielded a flurry of major agreements, with allies motivated by China's behavior.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suspended the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement for another six months to allow both sides to address his concerns.
Talks between Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the Philippine defense and foreign secretaries centered on "deepening our alliance and supporting a free and open South China Sea and Indo-Pacific region."
A U.S. Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman was deported Sunday after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines.