Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos offered today to remove a US missile system from the Philippines if China stops what he called its "aggressive and violent behavior" in the disputed South China Sea.
"Let's make a deal with China, stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and our citizens, stop your aggressive behavior, and in return I will remove the Typhoon missiles," Marcos told reporters.
Chinese officials have not commented on his statements. The US military deployed a Typhoon medium-range missile system in the northern Philippines in April last year.
China has repeatedly demanded that the Philippines remove the missile system, saying it "incites confrontation and an arms race."
The Tomahawk missiles can reach targets 1.600 kilometers away, putting parts of China within their range. The missile system will remain in the Philippines indefinitely, a Philippine official said.
Asked about China's criticism of the missile system, Marcos said he did not understand China's position because the Philippines does not comment on Chinese missile systems that are "a thousand times more powerful than what we have."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said last week that the Philippines is "creating tensions and antagonism in the region and fueling geopolitical confrontation and an arms race" by allowing a US missile system to be stationed on its territory.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro dismissed China's demand to remove the missile system as interference in the Philippines' internal affairs.
The US and the Philippines have repeatedly condemned China's increasingly aggressive actions in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where hostilities have flared in the past two years with clashes between the Chinese and Philippine coast guards.
Besides China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have territorial claims in the South China Sea, a key shipping lane that is also believed to contain large undersea gas and oil deposits.
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