The Philippines will give the US more access to its military bases, the two countries said Thursday. This will give US forces a better strategic footing on the southeastern edge of the South China Sea near self-ruled Taiwan. Under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) from 2014, the US will be able to send troops to a total of nine bases in the Philippines. This new deal will give the US access to four more locations.
In recent months, the US has been working harder to increase its security options in the Indo-Pacific region. This is because China’s aggressive territorial moves in the region are making people more worried. During a visit to Manila on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said that the US and the Philippines would keep working to improve their ability to defend against armed attacks.
“That’s just part of our efforts to modernize our alliance. And these efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea,” said Austin, referring to China’s growing presence in waters near the Philippines.
Austin did not say where the bases are that the US military will be able to use more. China said that the move would make things worse in the area. “escalated tension in the region and endangers regional peace and stability,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday.
“Out of its selfish agenda, the US side has held up to the cold war. Regional countries should remain vigilant about this and avoid being used by the US,” Mao said. The announcement on Thursday comes after a number of high-profile agreements between the US military and countries in the region, such as plans to share defense technologies with India and send new US Marine units to islands in Japan.
Last week, the US Marine Corps also opened a new base on Guam, an important US island east of the Philippines for military purposes. Camp Blaz is the first new Marine base in 70 years, and 5,000 Marines are expected to live there one day.
Efforts To Stop China
An expansion of access to military bases in the Philippines could put United States armed forces less than 300 kilometers (about 200 miles) south of Taiwan, a democratically governed island with a population of 24 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its sovereign territory despite the fact that it has never controlled Taiwan.
The current leader of China, Xi Jinping, has refused to rule out the use of military force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control. However, the Taiwan Relations Act, under which Washington agrees to provide the island with the means to defend itself without committing US troops, has kept the Biden administration steadfast in its support for the island.
Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, traveled to the Philippines in November to meet with the newly elected President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. to discuss expanding the access that the United States has to its bases there. According to a number of specialists, her trip sent in no uncertain terms to Beijing that the Philippines are drawing closer to the United States. This is a reversal of the trend that was observed under the administration of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The mutual defense pact that Washington and Manila signed in 1951 is still in effect, making it the longest bilateral treaty alliance that the United States maintains in the region. The treaty was signed between Washington and Manila.
In addition to the extension of the EDCA, the United States is assisting the Philippines in the modernization of its armed forces and has selected the Philippines as a pilot country for a program concerning maritime domain awareness. The two nations just recently reached an agreement to participate in over 500 joint activities throughout the course of the year.
The Philippines made the announcement earlier this month that 16,000 Philippine and US troops would be participating in the annual Balikatan exercise, which is scheduled to take place from April 24 to April 27. The exercise will take place from April 24 to April 27.
That exercise will include “a live fire exercise to test the newly acquired weapons system of the United States and the Philippines,” an announcement from the state-run Philippine News Agency said.
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Philippines used to be a part of the US
In 1898, as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War, Madrid handed up authority of its colony in the Philippines to the United States. This marked the beginning of formal links between the United States and the Philippines.
Although the United States declared the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1946, the archipelago nation continued to be occupied by American troops even after it had been a territory of the United States since July 4, 1946.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Philippines was home to two of the United States Military’s largest overseas outposts, namely Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station. These locations provided assistance for the United States’ war effort in Vietnam.
After a military basing agreement between Washington and Manila that had been in place since 1947 came to an end in the 1990s, both bases were turned over to Philippine sovereignty.
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