The Philippines is rearming itself and strengthening defence ties with its east Asian neighbours amid a security upheaval triggered by superpower rivalries in a region crucial to world trade.
Delfin Lorenzana, Philippine secretary of national defence, said Manila wanted to reduce its military dependence on the US but would not become a Chinese client state despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s courting of Beijing.
“We are buying ships from Indonesia, aeroplanes from Korea, ships from Korea. Japan is providing us some ships,” said Mr Lorenzana, who has in his office a large model of a Korean-made FA-50 fighter, an aircraft already being delivered to the Philippines.
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