Chang won’t replace Kim; US officials to visit Manila

MANILA, Philippines — The United States embassy has cleared up reports about a new ambassador to the Philippines, while the US State Department’s top diplomat for East Asia and the Pentagon’s top chief for Asia will arrive in Manila next week for a two-day visit to lead the United States’ delegation to the eighth US-Philippines Bilateral Strategic Dialogue (BSD).

The US embassy in Manila clarified yesterday that Ambassador Sung Kim will not be replaced by State Department official Mina Chang, contrary to reports.

“We’ve seen this claim. It is not true,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy said that “in September 2018, the White House announced the President’s intent to nominate Mina Chang to be an assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Bureau of Asia. The nomination was referred to the Senate foreign relations committee in January 2019.”

“There have been no additional White House announcements regarding her nomination to the USAID position,” it added.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell and Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver will be in Manila from July 15 to 16 to lead the US delegation to the BSD, the principal forum for discussing the broad spectrum of US-Philippines cooperation, including defense, economics, rule of law and regional diplomacy.

The State Department announced yesterday that Stilwell will visit Japan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand from July 10 to 21, in his first trip as assistant secretary.

During his visit to Manila in August last year, Schriver said the US was concerned with the trajectory of Chinese activities, involvement and its behavior in the South China Sea. 

The defense official stressed that the US conducts Freedom of Navigation Operations all over the world and also conducts presence operations alongside other countries that have their own concerns about the erosion of international law and norms.

The Philippines and the US previously held the seventh BSD last December in Washington, where delegates emphasized the importance of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Both sides reiterated their commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea in the South China Sea, and stressed the importance of peacefully resolving disputes in accordance with international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.