(16 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Manila, Philippines – 16 August 2024
1. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo walking towards podium
2. Manalo speaking
3. Various of journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Enrique Manalo, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary:
“Yes we (China Foreign Minister Wang Yi) discussed it (missile), well they (China) made it very dramatic, there was a warning… and he mentioned it. And I said you shouldn’t be worried. (Reporter: “Were you able to convince him that there is nothing to be worried about?”) I hope so, because I’m not worried."
5. Reporter asking question
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Enrique Manalo, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary:
“What I recall is that the foreign minister (China Foreign Minister Wang Yi) and I, I respect him very much, we have known each other for some time, he said it could be destabilising the presence and I said no they are not destabilising and that I believe the particular missile he is referring to are only there temporarily.”
7. Wide of news conference
STORYLINE:
China has expressed its “very dramatic” alarm over a mid-range missile system that the US military recently deployed to the Philippines and warned it could destabilise the region, but Manila’s top diplomat said Friday he reassured his Chinese counterpart that the weaponry was only in the country temporarily.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, expressed China’s concern over the US mid-range missile deployment to the Philippines during their talks last month in Laos on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings with Asian and Western countries.
“We discussed it and, well, they made it very dramatic,” Manalo said in response to questions during a news conference with foreign correspondents in Manila.
“I said you shouldn’t be worried,” he added.
Pressed to specify what China’s specific concerns were, Manalo said Wang warned the presence of the US missile system could be “destabilizing,” but the Philippine foreign affairs chief said he disagreed.
“They’re not destabilising” and the missile system was only in the Philippines temporarily, Manalo said he told Wang.
The US Army said in April it transported the mid-range missile system, a land-based weaponry that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, from the US to the northern Philippines as part of combat exercises with Philippine troops.
The missile system, however, was not fired during the joint combat exercises of the longtime treaty allies and the Philippine military has said the missile system may be transported out of the country next month.
China has strongly opposed increased US military deployments to the region, including to the Philippines, and warned these could endanger regional stability and peace.
The US and the Philippines have repeatedly condemned China’s increasingly assertive actions to fortify its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where hostilities have particularly flared since last year between Chinese and Philippine coast guard forces and accompanying vessels.
In addition to China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the busy waterways, a key global and security route.
AP video shot by Joeal Calupitan
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