The United States said Tuesday it has approved the possible sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China.

The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States.

The sale would "improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia," a State Department statement said.

It would also boost "the Philippine Air Force's ability to conduct maritime domain awareness" and "enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses," the statement said.

The news follows months of increasing confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion........

© International Business Times