US will not ‘live fire' Philippines-based Typhon missile system that angered China
Philippines during their coming annual joint military exercises.
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China strongly protested and repeatedly warned of 'resolute countermeasures' after the
Typhon launchers were deployed on northern Luzon Island during joint drills by the treaty allies last April.
'We are not planning to conduct live fire in the Philippines right now,' Jeffrey VanAntwerp, deputy chief of staff of operations, plans and training at US Army Pacific, was quoted as saying last week.
The US Army statement comes with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth set to visit Manila this week to 'advance security objectives with Philippine leaders', according to a statement from the Pentagon.
The Philippines will be the first stop in Hegseth's first trip to Asia since taking office. He is next expected to visit Japan, another US treaty ally.
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Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he did not want war with China but the American military was well prepared.
'We don't want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we're very well-equipped to handle it,' Trump said from the Oval Office.
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AllAfrica
a day ago
- AllAfrica
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It's time for a new lens to understand the two superpowers: China is an engineering state , building big at breakneck speed, in contrast to the United States' lawyerly society , blocking everything it can, good and bad. On his website, the author explains that his book is 'driven by a few simple ideas': That Americans and Chinese are fundamentally alike: restless, eager for shortcuts, ultimately driving most of the world's big changes. That their rivalry should not be reasoned through with worn-out terms from the past century like socialist, democratic or neoliberal. And that both countries are tangles of imperfection, regularly delivering – in the name of competition – self-beatings that go beyond the wildest dreams of the other. Wang describes himself as 'a Canadian who has spent almost equal amounts of time living in the United States and China.' 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a day ago
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