Giving of Military Aid

The Vienna Convention on Law of Treaties of 1969 (VCLT) is considered as the primary

document that regulates treaties. Article 2(1)(a) of the VCLT defines treaty as “an international

agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law, whether

embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its

particular designation” (Department of Legal Services, n.d.). To note, “VCLT relates only to

treaties that are governed by international law” (Gunaratne, 2013). Relative to this information

and definition, one can safely say that a certain country may send military aid or troops to

another country based on an existing treaty. In the Philippines, the most popular example of this

is the Balikatan Exercise. Considerably, the Balikatan series is designed to improve both the

United States and the Philippines’ readiness when it comes to enhancing and planning security

related activities (GlobalySecurity.org, 2016). To note, “Balikatan is conducted to meet Republic

of the Philippines-US obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty and to fulfill RP-US mutual

training and readiness requirement” (GlobalSecurity.org, 2016). Relatively, it was the intention

of the U.S. to use the Balikatan 2002 exercise as a means whereby it can counter-terrorism

through the help of the Republic of the Philippines after the terrorist attack on September 11,

2001. Although the Balikatan ended due to dispute about the Visiting Forces Agreement, the

missions continued to persist and was made permanent when it became a part of the Opertaion

Enduring Freedom – Phililppines (OEF-P) (GlobalSecuriyt.org, 2016). As such, there were about

5, 000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers who engaged in War in May 2014 (GlobalSecurity.org, 2016).

Not only that, there was an estimate of 5, 000 American and Filipino soldiers who participated

naval games in Luzon (GlobalSecurity.org, 2016). Although America’s military presence was

lessened after 1992, it is worthy to note that its military operations are still facilitated by certain
arrangements such was the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999 which is supplemented by the

Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement of 2014. Calalang (2016) asserted that, these

arrangements are overarched by the “original Mutual Defense Treaty signed by America and the

Philippines in 1951, which, to this day, guarantees that the U.S. and the Philippines would

support each other if attacked by an external party.”

To note, it is the government which is given the authority to ask for assistance to maintain

its control over the state. In fact, “the government may seek such assistance from the United

Nations, from regional organizations, or from individual states” (Wippman, n.d., p. 214). “As the

International Court of Justice observed in Nicaragua v. United States, intervention is generally

‘allowable... at the request of the government of a State’” (Wippman, n.d., p. 214). If in any case

Country A requests to Country B a military aid in accordance with a Mutual Defense Treaty, but

what is enforced is only the international law, a bilateral agreement will apply to this specific

case. According to Wippman (n.d., p. 210), “the International Law Commission concluded that

the consent to intervention acts as a form of bilateral agreement between the consenting and

intervening states that suspends the normal operation of the legal rules that would otherwise

govern their relationship.” Meaning, intervention of another country is only justified when such

intervention is not against the will of the state seeking for an aid. However, in cases where

consent may splinter or disappear, the government may switch to enforcement action under

Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Security Council did this in Somalia, and in the former

Yugoslavia (Wippman, n.d., p. 236).

References
Calalang, C. (2016). PH and US: Who needs whom more? Inquirer.net. Retrieved from

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/150961/ph-us-needs

Department of Legal Services. (n.d.). Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties signed at Vienna

23 May 1969. Retrieved from http://www.oas.org/legal/english/docs/Vienna

%20Convention%20Treaties.htm

GlobalSecurity.org. (2016). Exercise balikatan "shouldering the load together." Retrieved from

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/balikatan.htm

Gunaratne, R. (2013). Law of treaties 1: What is a treaty? Public International Law. Retrieved

from https://ruwanthikagunaratne.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/law-of-treaties-vienna-

convention-on-law-of-treaties-1969/

Wippman, D. (n.d.). Military intervention, regional organizations, and host-state consent. Print.