Some 400 American soldiers and defence contractors deployed in the southern Philippines could be pulled out within months if Washington and Manila do not sign a new Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) by then.
So heard an international conference titled “The Philippines Hedging Between Alliance or Appeasement: Can the Biden Administration Tip the Balance?”
The US was “ready to withdraw” the contingent of soldiers from the Mindanao island group, where they are involved in operations against Islamist extremists and communist rebels, Renato De Castro, an international relations professor at De la Salle University in Manila, told the webinar hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University on Friday.
Asked to elaborate in a one-on-one interview on Sunday, the specialist in Philippines-US security relations said a defence attaché from a Southeast Asian country had told him last week that the Americans would “be withdrawing all troops by June or July if no new agreement comes out”.