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(Photo courtesy of French Embassy in Manila) MANILA - French Ambassador to the Philippines Michle Boccoz has cited President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s "strong" take on protecting the country's territory, an area she said Paris would like to further increase engagements with Manila. "Obviously, what we took a good note of when listening to the speech is also the very strong position in foreign policy. As I was mentioning, defense and security are one of the areas where we are very much involved in, where we continue to be involved," Boccoz said in a media reception Tuesday. "(S)omething that we noted (is) 'not a square inch of the Philippine territory' being (abandoned) and so the languages are strong. And this is also certainly an area where we've been working together but we can increase and further develop our cooperation." She said the two countries could enhance cooperation in maritime security or reopen discussions on possible joint p
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on China to abide by a 2016 decision by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration invalidating Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea, and reiterated the US’ commitment to assisting the Philippines in the event of a conflict in the disputed waters.
“We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defense commitments” under the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, The Associated Press cited Blinken as saying.
His statements came just a few days after Rear