PH to get share in $55-M US maritime security funding

MANILA, September 26 ------ The Philippines is among the countries set to get a portion of the United States’ new USD55 million or approximately PHP3.2 billion funding on maritime security in the region, the US Department of State said.

The new allocation is aimed at helping enhance the maritime law enforcement capacity of countries in the Indo-Pacific, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Pacific Islands, and still unnamed “maritime South Asian nations." The State Department said the funding will enable the beneficiary states to “counter illicit maritime activities, exercise their sovereign rights, and interdict illicit fishing and maritime trafficking operations.”

The new funding was announced during the US-co-hosted ministerial meeting on “Reinforcing Cooperation to Achieve a Secure and Stable Maritime Domain” on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 24. In the high-level gathering, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro rallied nations to uphold international law and cooperation at sea. State Secretary Marco Rubio, for his part, called for collective actions to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, including the South China Sea.

The US Department of State, quoting the US top diplomat as saying, said Rubio further highlighted China’s “expansive and unlawful maritime claims” in the vital sea lane and the “destabilizing ways it attempts to enforce them.” In addition, Rubio encouraged close coordination among countries to reinforce the freedoms of navigation and overflight and the free flow of commerce globally. "Discussed critical maritime security issues with my counterparts at the UN today. A free, open Indo-Pacific is vital to global trade and security. Together, we’re building a coalition to safeguard these principles," he said in a separate post on X on Thursday.

Forty countries actively participated in the meeting, which was co-hosted by the US with the Philippines, Australia, Estonia, Greece, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, and the United Kingdom.

Source: pna.gov.ph