Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was in
Washington last week for a rather specific purpose: to seek U.S. support in his
country’s growing territorial dispute with China in the East Sea.

The Foreign Ministers of the US and the Philippines

Mr. del Rosario told us he was seeking a “clarification” of the mutual defense
treaty between the Philippines and the United States; he would like a U.S.
statement suggesting it applies to a gas-rich seabed the Philippines and China
are contesting. His government also would like help in beefing up its navy,
perhaps through the lease of patrol boats.

These are tricky requests for the Obama administration, which has been trying to
avoid taking sides in the increasingly dangerous clashes between China and its
neighbors over a huge and vital Asian waterway that Beijing — in apparent
contravention of international law — claims entirely for itself.

China would like the United States to stay out of its disputes with the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, so that it can deal with each of
those weaker countries in turn. “I believe the individual countries are actually
playing with fire,” Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said Wednesday, “and I
hope the fire will not be drawn to the United States.”

Such menacing language makes clear why the United States needs to exert its
influence. Up to one-third of global trade passes through the East Sea, so
preserving freedom of navigation is a “national interest,” as Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton put it last year. As important is checking China’s
impulse to bully its neighbors, including not only friendly but weak democracies
such as the Philippines but also Japan, which has its own maritime disputes with
Beijing.

The Obama administration has made gestures in this direction. In addition to Ms.
Clinton’s statement — which she repeated last week — Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates pledged recently that “five years from now the United States’ influence”
in Asia will be “as strong if not stronger than it is today.” After meeting with
Mr. del Rosario, Ms. Clinton said the United States was committed to the defense
of the Philippines and to providing it with weapons, though she would not
comment on the U.S. response to a potential attack by China in the East Sea.

Such rhetoric ought to be coupled with initiatives. Ms. Clinton has suggested
the United States could play a role in fostering multilateral discussions on the
East Sea; Washington should press China to formalize a “code of conduct” with
Southeast Asian nations for handling territorial disputes.

Notwithstanding its neutrality on territorial disputes, the Obama administration
could point out the ways in which China’s claims objectively are at odds with
United Nations conventions. And if Mr. del Rosario’s government wishes to shift
its long-standing defense cooperation with the United States from
counterterrorism to the patrol and defense of its territorial waters, the
Pentagon should be ready to cooperate.

TWP