The United States "will do what is necessary" to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday (July 19).

Sullivan said the U.S. would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre, which Manila beached in 1999 to reinforce maritime claims in the South China Sea contested by China.

Speaking to the Aspen Security Forum conference in Colorado, Sullivan said the United States has made clear to China that its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines applies to the Sierra Madre.

"Well, first of all, just on the point of the Mutual Defense Treaty, we've made clear that it applies to public vessels, in the South China Sea and so China well understands our view of the application of the mutual defense treaty should that line get crossed. That's an important point. We believe it is a stabilizing point, it's one we have reinforced publicly and very much reinforced directly to the PRC. And the Philippines understands and appreciates that," he said.

"Secondly, we have tried to consult very closely with the Philippines because these are decisions they should lead on, how to most effectively reprovision this ship so that the sailors on board have the food and water and other provisions they need to continue to fulfill their mission. And we will do what is necessary with the Philippines to see to it that that happens."

"But in terms of specific concepts of operations or the exact way in which the United States would be engaged, our preference is to have the maintenance of the status quo there, the capacity of the Philippines to do these resupplies, we will continue to support the Philippines and stand behind them as they take steps to be able to ensure that and I will be very cautious about speaking about hypotheticals, should we have to get to it, because the the most important thing right now is to see de-escalation and to see the ability of the Philippines to do resupplies. We believe that is achievable, and we are going to drive to make that happen."

On another topic, Sullivan said China is responding when the United States reports banks engaging in concerning Russia-related transactions but has maintained support for Moscow's Ukraine war effort with dual-use items.

"We have seen them respond when we go to them to say, here's a bank that's facilitating a transaction that is a concern to us. We have seen them respond to that, but writ large, the picture is not pretty. China continues to be a major supplier of dual use items to Russia's war machine. And dual use items is kind of, an abstract term, it's a good Washington term."

"What it means it's the it's the implements. It's the instruments that go into the weapons that are killing Ukrainians and oppressing Ukraine. And we think China should stop because we think it is profoundly outside of the bounds of decent conduct, by nation states. And, and China should not be on team Russia when it comes to the war in Ukraine. So, there are targeted ways in which they are responsive, but the larger picture continues to travel in the wrong direction from my perspective. And we have made no bones about that. We've been quite public and transparent about it, and we of course say that directly to them in dialogue as well. And so do our European partners. And the NATO summit made a very strong statement on this issue publicly, which I would reinforce here."

(Production: Colette Luke)

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