{"id":275048,"date":"2020-11-12T04:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=275048"},"modified":"2020-11-12T04:00:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T09:00:44","slug":"us-lauds-extended-suspension-of-vfa-termination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/11\/12\/us-lauds-extended-suspension-of-vfa-termination\/","title":{"rendered":"US lauds extended suspension of VFA termination"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_274972\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-274972\" style=\"width: 720px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Balikatan-Flags-2_5af0f8856d4ef4_34280698.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-274972\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Balikatan-Flags-2_5af0f8856d4ef4_34280698.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Balikatan-Flags-2_5af0f8856d4ef4_34280698.jpg 720w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Balikatan-Flags-2_5af0f8856d4ef4_34280698-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-274972\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The VFA, signed in 1998, allows American troops who are participating in joint military exercises to visit Manila without passport and visa. (PNA file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The United States Embassy in Manila on Thursday welcomed the Philippine government&#8217;s decision to suspend the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) for another six months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We welcome the Government of the Philippines\u2019 November 11 decision to suspend termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) for another six months. The US-Philippines alliance remains vital to our robust, deep-rooted bilateral relationship,&#8221; it said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The United States will continue to partner closely with the Philippines to strengthen our mutual security ties,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>President Rodrigo Duterte&#8217;s decision to extend the suspension of the VFA&#8217;s abrogation was announced on Wednesday by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin.<\/p>\n<p>Locsin said this would allow both states &#8220;to find a more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement on how to move forward in our mutual defense&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The VFA, signed in 1998, allows American troops who are participating in joint military exercises to visit Manila without passport and visa.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte ordered the military deal&#8217;s termination in February 2020 but later decided to suspend said revocation for six months in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The United States Embassy in Manila on Thursday welcomed the Philippine government&#8217;s decision to suspend the termination of the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":274972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275049,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275048\/revisions\/275049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}