International Desk: The United States and the Philippines have signed a new military agreement. The key to the agreement is that the US will be able to monitor Chinese activities in the South China Sea and around Taiwan from four military bases in the Philippines. They hope it will preserve peace and freedom in the Indo-Pacific region. BBC news.
The Philippines was the only loophole in the anti-China ring that the US-led coalition is trying to create, from South Korea in the north and Japan to Australia in the south. Two potential flashpoints of potential conflict between Chinese and US forces—Taiwan and the South China Sea—are the Philippine Islands.
Now the deal will give US troops greater access to military bases in the Philippines, and for the first time in three decades large numbers of American troops will return to their flash-point colony, the Philippines. In response to EU chiefs in Kiev, China’s foreign ministry said the deal would harm regional stability.
“There is no situation in the South China Sea that would not require the Philippines to enter,” said Gregory B. Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.
“The United States is not looking for a permanent base. The whole thing is about a place, not a base.’
The United States already has limited access to five Philly bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA.
According to the Washington government’s statement, the agreement to add these new bases will allow the United States to “more rapidly respond to humanitarian and climate-related disasters, and to respond to other challenges” in the Philippines, which covertly means countering China in the region.
The statement came after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Philippine President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. in Manila on Thursday.
It is not known where the new US bases in the Philippines will be, but three of them could be on the northern Philippine island of Luzon. It’s the only large landmass near Taiwan, if you don’t count China.
The U.S. today wants to base itself in places where it can conduct “light and soft” operations, such as maintaining supply and surveillance as needed, but which does not require the deployment of large numbers of troops.
