FT: Biden Administration Plans to Send a Clear Warning to Beijing Over South China Sea

File image of the the grounded Philippine navy ship BRP Sierra Madre where marines are stationed to assert Manila's territorial claims at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea. Ted ALJIBE / AFP

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to use this week’s unprecedented trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan to send a clear warning to China not to push too far in the South China Sea, according to an exclusive report by Financial Times correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo.

Biden will reportedly make it clear during the summit that the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the Philippines does include protection of the BRP Sierra Madre, a decrepit World War II-era warship that serves as Manila’s territorial outpost on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.

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by Eric Olander

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