STORY: :: July 9, 2025:: Singapore:: Philippines defense chief says prospect ofwar in Asia 'is not imminent':: Gilberto Teodoro, Philippines Defense Secretary“The aggressiveness of China has been several years in the making already. And I believe that China's design for the region does not (inaudible) American leader. It depends on its own plan of action in the region, its own, to our minds, to its own expansionist activities, its own need to control the area. So I believe that although there is a factor on American pushback on China. We see too that this design by China is predetermined by their own leader, irrespective of who an American leader he is.”“I feel that the prospect of war is not imminent, I believe it is remote. But that would entirely depend, depend entirely upon the internal conditions of China. So far as the Philippines is concerned, we are not allowed by our constitution to seek war as an instrument of national policy. What we are doing is to create, just like Singapore does, credible deterrence coupled with diplomacy. You can't have diplomacy without a credible deterrent force.”Teodoro added that the Philippines was doing its best to put a stop “to the illegal incursions of China.”The Philippines has been among the most vocal critics of China's growing assertion of sovereignty in the South China Sea, in contrast to some of its neighbors like Malaysia, who have adopted a more cautious stance.China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.A 2016 ruling of an international arbitral tribunal said Beijing's claims, based on its historic maps, have no basis under international law, a decision China does not recognise.