‘Whether America is behind its president in its ironclad commitments to allies remains to be seen.’
ON two occasions last week, US President Joe Biden publicly declared that his country’s support for two long-time islands was “ironclad.”
One was in relation to the Philippines, and was uttered during a tripartite meeting of the leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines in Washington, DC to discuss a joint approach on issues surrounding the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPS). Those issues, we all know, center around contentions of sovereignty, with the Philippines and China being only two of a handful of states claiming slices of the water body, but the two most at odds, it seems.
Biden’s reassurance that the United States stands by the Philippines is founded on a Mutual Defense Treaty the two countries signed in the 1950s and is considered in full force and effect to this day. Tested last during the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s, it is now once again being taken off the shelves where it has long gathered dust, because this time around, China, the new big power, has emerged in the region and is feared to be preparing to flex its muscles in a big way over Taiwan and parts of the SCS.
Biden has declared, time and again, that (by virtue of the MDT) any attack on the Philippines will be considered by the United States as an attack on the US itself.
(Of course, water cannon assaults by huge Chinese Coast Guard ships on tiny Philippine Coast Guard vessels do not count. He-he)
The second time the US President uttered this “ironclad” statement was in relation to Israel, which just two days ago was subjected to a drone and missile assault by Iran. Iran was retaliating for the Israeli attack on its embassy in Syria which killed a number of Iranians, including a prominent general, for which it has vowed to respond.
The response did come amid fears of a widening conflict in the region that would pit Israel directly against Iran, another regional military power, and it is in part as an attempt to prevent such a widening of the war that Biden issued his “ironclad” statement regarding the US support for Israel, their serious and growing differences over the way the Gaza conflict is being handled notwithstanding.
It’s been decades since the US has been forced to stand by its defense commitments to key allies, but the last few decades after the Vietnam War and the involvement in Afghanistan have raised questions about whether America still has what it takes to deliver.
Public opinion in America is no longer what it was after World War 2 when no American dared question the US role as “policeman of the world” and global defender of democracy.
But times have changed, as have geopolitical relations.
Whether America is behind its president in its ironclad commitments to allies remains to be seen. I hope, however, that nothing ever happens in the Middle East or here in our region to see whether America’s actions will match its words.
