MANILA, Philippines - Building a strong “deterrence to strength” to be able to avert any kind of conflict in the future, is what U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Philippine Defense Chief Gilberto Teodoro will possibly discuss during his upcoming visit to Manila this week, according to Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez.
In a television interview on Tuesday, Romualdez expressed optimism on the scheduled stop of Hegseth in the Philippines which is slated on March 28-29.
“The planned visit of Secretary Hegseth comes at the right time when we are really trying to now bring forward this new relationship that we have with the Trump administration,” Romualdez said.
According to Romualdez, there was already “a lot of excitement” for the visit, after Hegseth and Teodoro’s phone call last month.
In a readout provided by the Pentagon, the then-newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Defense and Teodoro held an introductory call on Wednesday (Feb. 5) to discuss defense cooperation in the U.S.-Philippines Alliance.
“The leaders discussed the importance of reestablishing deterrence in the South China Sea, including by working with allies and partners. They also discussed enhancing the capability and capacity of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” the readout stated.
He also believes that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites will remain amidst the change of leadership in the U.S. government.
“Well, I think the EDCA will remain, but in fact all those nine bases will be completed within the next year, I would assume. And together with that, we'll be able to put in what are the things that we need, to have those bases be ready for any kind of situation we may face down the road, not only any conflict but also, like we've said, being able to mitigate any potential disaster, what we call disaster resilience,” Romualdez explains.
“So, all of that is part and parcel of what we have already started with the United States, and we will continue, but this time, with the Trump administration. I think they want to make it even faster and more efficient and be able to really strengthen our alliance in a very strong way,” he added.
Romualdez confirmed last month that the Trump administration has exempted the USD338 million assistance for the modernization of the Philippines’ armed and security forces from its foreign aid freeze, saying the amount is part of the USD 500 million foreign military financing or FMF that was approved last year under the Biden administration.
