Organizer: The East-West Center in Washington

Description:

Five years into the six-year term of former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, the Philippines moved for the abrogation of its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, shaking one of the very foundations of the U.S.-Philippines alliance. While the move has since been recalled, which fully reinstituted the security agreement, the “vicious” attempt by the former president to scuttle the VFA at the pretext of fully pursuing a Philippine independent foreign policy—while copiously swinging to China—engendered too many “ifs” and “buts” questions. In this seminar, Mr. Acosta will discuss his research on possible outcomes if the Philippines were to follow through with abrogating the VFA. He suggests that not only could the Philippines lose the support of a major defense and security ally and impact its Mutual Defense Treaty with the U.S. government, but it could also, and more consequentially, tilt the regional status quo in favor of China, leaving the South China Sea to its domination and rendering Taiwan vulnerable to conquest.

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