By Brian Harding
On August 29, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will touch down in Manila on the last stop of a week-long trip through Southeast Asia. While Hagel's stops so far have been easy—in Malaysia and Indonesia he gave a boost to positive, but nascent defense relations and
in Brunei he attended a meeting of regional defense chiefs—the rubber hits the road in the Philippines.
The first U.S. Secretary of Defense to visit Manila since 2009, Hagel will arrive with a seemingly simple question for Philippine President Benigno Aquino: is Manila prepared to have a serious relationship with the United States?
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