Philippines ends South China Sea patrols with US

The Philippines notified the U.S. military that plans for joint patrols and naval exercises in the South China Sea are being put on hold, the Philippines’s defense secretary said Friday, according to The Associated Press.

The announcement represents the first concrete break in joint activities for the alliance partners of 65 years after months of threats from the inflammatory new president of the Philippines.

{mosads}In addition to ending South China Sea operations, Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said his president will soon ask 107 U.S. troops in the southern part of the country to leave and will halt 28 annual joint military exercises.

But Lorenzanza also expressed hope that the ties would not be severed permanently, according to the AP.

“I think it’s just going through these bumps on the road,” Lorenzana told a news conference. “Relationships sometimes go to this stage … but over time it will be patched up.”

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, furious at the United States’s criticism of his deadly war on drugs and dubious of his country’s former colonial master, has been threatening to curtail military cooperation since he took office in June.

Last month, he said U.S. forces on the Muslim-majority island of Mindanao in the southern part of the country “have to go.” The forces are training Filipino troops fighting Islamist militants and have been on the island since 2002, when they were deployed as part of the global war on terrorism.

Duterte has also said the joint amphibious landing exercise underway now will be the “last one.” And he has threatened to end a 2014 defense pact with the United States that allowed for a bulked-up U.S. troop presence in his country.

Prior to Duterte’s election, the alliance between the United States and the Philippines appeared to be strengthening around shared concerns over China’s actions in the South China Sea.

In April, the two countries conducted joint patrols in the disputed waters and said there were plans for more. At that time, the United States also deployed a slew of aircraft and airmen to Manila.

Despite Duterte’s threats, U.S. officials have been insisting that that the U.S.-Philippines alliance remains “ironclad.”

“As it has been for decades, our alliance with the Philippines is ironclad,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a speech last week.

Duterte has also drawn ire over disparaging remarks about President Obama. This week, he said Obama can “go to hell.” And he previously called Obama a “son of a b—h,” though he later expressed regret about that comment.