Presumptive US Secretary of State nominee and incumbent Senator Marco Rubio warned Beijing to “stop messing around” with the Philippines and Taiwan.
The Florida lawmaker called China’s actions towards its neighbors “deeply destabilizing” and if unchecked, could compel the US to “counteract.”
During his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday [Manila time], Rubio advised Beijing against doing “anything rash or irrational” when it comes to the Philippines or Taiwan if it is serious about stabilizing US-China relations.
“The actions they are taking now are deeply destabilizing, they are forcing us to take counteractions because we have commitments to the Philippines and we have commitments to Taiwan that we intend to keep,” he said.
“If they want to destabilize the relationship or they want to at least create some pathway for stabilization of our relationship with them, they really need to stop messing around with Taiwan and with the Philippines because it’s forcing us to focus our attention in ways we prefer not to have to,” he added.
Rubio warned that any “miscommunication” or “some inadvertent conflict” that would emerge from China’s harassment in the West Philippine Sea [South China Sea] could then force the US to defend the Philippines as its treaty ally.
This week, Beijing drew Manila’s ire after it deployed a 165-meter-long coast guard vessel, dubbed “monster ship,” near Zambales, an example of the “harassment” the Senator from Florida mentioned in the hearing.
“The Philippines feels threatened by it, rightfully so. We’ve seen this on a daily basis with the harassment and so forth,” Rubio said.
“If, God forbid, there is some miscommunication or some inadvertent conflict emerges there and we have obligations to them [the Philippines], the impact that it will have on the entire globe is enormous and that includes Europe,” he added.
In the same hearing, Rubio emphasized Manila’s “strategic importance” to Washington not only from a military perspective but also over the “real economic opportunities” it could explore with the country.
He also acknowledged the current Philippine administration’s “welcoming attitude” in recent years to further boost engagement with the US.
“When your engagement with a country leads to economic development – whether it’s outbound US investment in the Philippines or what have you – then that becomes enduring,” Rubio said.
