{"id":114939,"date":"2025-10-31T19:11:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=114939"},"modified":"2025-10-31T19:11:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:11:04","slug":"us-philippines-form-military-task-force-for-areas-including-south-china-sea-pentagon-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KUALA LUMPUR(National times)-  The United States and the Philippines have formed a new joint task force to strengthen cooperation and increase military readiness in areas including the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Friday. The announcement followed a meeting between Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro at a gathering of ASEAN defence ministers in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Task Force-Philippines &#8220;will increase operational cooperation, improve combined planning, and enhance interoperability, particularly in the South China Sea,&#8221; according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Friday, Hegseth said he raised concern about China&#8217;s actions towards Washington&#8217;s regional allies and partners, in apparent references to repeated clashes with the Philippines in the South China Sea and tension with Australia over surveillance flights. Hegseth also said the US was concerned about China&#8217;s activities in the disputed South China Sea and around Taiwan. The US and Philippines defense secretaries &#8220;shared their determination to re-establish deterrence in the region&#8221; in their fourth meeting, the Pentagon said. The US and Philippines have a mutual defense treaty. They also announced the completion of a plan to modernize the defense partnership and speed up progress on major priorities over the next two years, the statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KUALA LUMPUR(National times)- The United States and the Philippines have formed a new joint task force to strengthen cooperation and increase military readiness in areas including the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Friday. The announcement followed a meeting between Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro at a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"KUALA LUMPUR(National times)- The United States and the Philippines have formed a new joint task force to strengthen cooperation and increase military readiness in areas including the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Friday. The announcement followed a meeting between Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro at a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T14:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/\",\"name\":\"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-31T14:11:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation","og_description":"KUALA LUMPUR(National times)- The United States and the Philippines have formed a new joint task force to strengthen cooperation and increase military readiness in areas including the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Friday. The announcement followed a meeting between Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro at a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/","og_site_name":"Nation","article_published_time":"2025-10-31T14:11:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":670,"height":370,"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"humza Jahangir","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"humza Jahangir","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/","name":"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says - Nation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png","datePublished":"2025-10-31T14:11:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-670x370-2025-10-31T191028.991.png","width":670,"height":370},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/114939\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US, Philippines form military task force for areas including South China Sea, Pentagon says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/","name":"Nation","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16","name":"humza Jahangir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"humza Jahangir"},"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114941,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114939\/revisions\/114941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}