Clinton, Philippine Leader Promise ‘New Partnership’ : Asia: They seek to ease tensions over ouster of U.S. military bases. Ramos hints of U.S. commitment to oppose force in South China Seas dispute.

President Clinton and Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos vowed Monday to work out a “new partnership” between their two countries, including increased security cooperation, in an effort to ease tensions caused by the ouster of American forces from former U.S. bases in the Philippines.

“The end of the Cold War and the closure of our bases (in the Philippines) has not changed the basis for continued cooperation between our two nations,” Clinton said during a press conference with Ramos at the White House.

The Philippine president suggested that he had obtained a commitment from Clinton to oppose the use of force by any nation in the sensitive area around the Spratly Islands, which lie west of the Philippines in the South China Sea. The islands and the waters around them, which contain potentially valuable oil and gas deposits, are claimed not only by the Philippines but also by five other countries including China, which has been building up its military and making broad territorial claims in the area.

Ramos’ visit to the White House, part of an eight-city tour of the United States, was the first top-level meeting between the United States and the Philippines since the Philippines formally voted in 1991 to evict U.S. troops from Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base.

The two bases, which housed more than 20,000 American troops and their dependents, were the linchpin of the U.S. military presence in Southeast Asia. The closure of the bases angered American military officials and raised questions among other Asian governments about whether the United States would withdraw from the western Pacific.

Nevertheless, after their White House meeting, Clinton and Ramos emphasized that the mutual defense treaty signed by the two countries in 1951 remains in effect.

“Security cooperation . . . remains a vital element in Philippine-American relations,” Ramos said at the White House press conference. Clinton pointed out that a U.S. ship, the destroyer O’Brien, recently visited Manila and that U.S. and Philippine troops carried out joint military exercises in the Philippines this fall.

Ramos, a graduate of West Point, was serving as army chief of staff for the Philippine military in 1986 when he sided with the “People’s Power” uprising against Ferdinand E. Marcos, who was then president.

After Marcos fled the country, Ramos served as President Corazon Aquino’s defense minister, helping to quell a series of attempted coups against her government. He won election to succeed Aquino as president last year.

On his current tour of the United States, Ramos’ primary goal has been to try to attract new American investment to the Philippines, so that his island nation can embark on the sort of rapid economic growth enjoyed by its East Asian neighbors.

At the White House on Monday, the Philippine president went out of his way to demonstrate that, unlike his predecessors, he is looking for private investment, not foreign aid from the U.S. government.

“Let me say that we hardly discussed aid at all,” Ramos said after his meeting with Clinton. “The main focus of our discussion was economic cooperation, which would result in more investment and trade in the Philippines.”

Ramos flew to Washington after meeting with Clinton and leaders of other Asian and Pacific nations in Seattle last week. Clinton said that Ramos had played a leading role there in pressing for multilateral efforts to protect and improve the environment in the Pacific.

“President Ramos suggested that we look at establishing . . . a technology transfer center that would accelerate the movement of technology for environmental protection and cleanup from the countries that have it to those that need to acquire it. . . ,” Clinton said.

Clinton and Ramos also announced that the two governments will soon begin to negotiate an extradition treaty.

“During the Marcos period, when the regime was very repressive and a lot of Filipinos came over to the United States to seek asylum, naturally there was no agreement on extradition, because the United States wanted to protect those that had sought political asylum in this country,” Ramos explained. “But we shall be concerned here with extradition in the strictly criminal sense, as applying to violators of the revised penal code of the Philippines.”