U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has condemned China's dangerous actions against the Philippines and renewed a warning that the United States would defend its treaty ally if Filipino forces come under an armed attack in the disputed South China Sea.

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday the U.S. alliance with the Philippines would transcend changes in administrations, as he reiterated his support for the Southeast Asian nation.

Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. receive United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III during his fourth visit to the Philippines on November 18,

Typhoon Man-yi has left at least seven people dead in a landslide, destroyed houses and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by multiple back-to-back storms.