The Philippines is aiming to sign an enhanced defence cooperation agreement with the United States in time for the arrival of US President Barack Obama to Manila later this month but the agreement will not be rushed, the Philippine presidential office said Saturday, according to dpa. The Philippines and the US agreed Friday on key points of the agreement which would allow increased US troops in the Philippines as well as US access to Philippine bases. "This (eighth) round brought us much closer to finding full consensus, and the draft provisions on key points of an enhanced defence cooperation will be submitted to (President Benigno Aquino III) for his review," Philippine panel head, Defence Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino said in a statement. The Philippines is looking at US aid to develop a "minimum credible defence posture" amid maritime row with China in the South China Sea while the deal is seen as part of a US rebalance to Asia. Although wanting to ink the deal before the arrival of Obama on April 28 and 29, the Philippines will not hurry into a hasty agreement, said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte in a radio broadcast. "There is no deadline, because (Aquino's) instruction ... is to make sure that everything is laid out well and nothing would be left out," she said. Batino said the latest round of talks found consensus on key points reflecting "full respect for Philippine sovereignty, non-permanence of US troops and no US military bases in the Philippines and a ban on weapons of mass destruction." Aquino has instructed the negotiating panel to comply with the Philippine's laws and constitution, which bans permanent foreign bases in the country.
