\n<\/p>\n
We are not Ukraine.<\/p>\n
That is the overarching message from officials in the Philippines, who say that they are certain they have the full backing of the United States despite President Trump\u2019s dramatic shifts in foreign policy, including his stunning blowup with Ukraine\u2019s leader<\/a>. Their confidence, they say, comes from the fact that both Washington and Manila have a common adversary: China.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump is embroiled in a trade war with China<\/a>, while the Philippines has been involved in increasingly tense standoffs with China in the South China Sea over Beijing\u2019s expansive territorial claims. Manila\u2019s biggest deterrent against China is a mutual defense treaty with the United States. Last month, Washington restored about $400 million in military assistance to the Philippines that had been suspended as part of Mr. Trump\u2019s freeze on foreign aid.<\/p>\n That was the \u201cbest proof\u201d that ties between the two countries were intact, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippines defense secretary, said in an interview in Manila on Tuesday, hours after Mr. Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Mr. Teodoro and his colleagues have spoken with members of Mr. Trump\u2019s cabinet and received assurances that Washington remains committed to the Philippines and the defense treaty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have no reason to doubt the commitments made by the highest officials of the Trump administration,\u201d said Mr. Teodoro, who flew to Washington in January to meet with Mike Waltz, Mr. Trump\u2019s national security adviser.<\/p>\n But Mr. Trump has exhibited a willingness to tear apart decades-old alliances. He has imposed tariffs<\/a> on Canada, undermined Europe<\/a> and rebuffed NATO<\/a>. While he has not publicly addressed ties with the Philippines, or the broader Indo-Pacific, his actions have caused jitters here.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to prepare for the day when the U.S. could withdraw from the South China Sea,\u201d said Antonio Carpio, a former Supreme Court justice who helped the Philippines win a landmark international ruling<\/a> against China over its claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n Beijing claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Manila has been at the forefront of the territorial fight, saying that Chinese ships have been blocking access to fishing sites as well as oil and gas deposits in the waters that are in its exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n Those tensions have escalated dramatically in recent years<\/a>, raising the risk that Washington could be drawn into a conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n