CNN
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The Philippines will grant the United States expanded access to its military bases, the two countries said Thursday, giving US forces a strategic foothold on the southeastern edge of the South China Sea near the ruling own Taiwan.
The newly announced agreement will give the US access to four more locations under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) dated 2014, which allows the US to rotate troops to a total of nine based all over the Philippines.
The US has stepped up efforts to expand its security options in the Indo-Pacific in recent months, amid growing concern over China’s aggressive territorial posture across the region.
Speaking during a visit to Manila Thursday, US Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said the US and the Philippines remain committed to strengthening their mutual capacity to resist armed attack.
“That is part of our effort 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,” Austin said, referring to China’s increasing presence in the waters nearby. in the Philippines.
Austin did not provide the location of the bases where the US military will gain new access.
Thursday’s announcement follows a series of high-profile US military deals across the region, including plans to share defense technologies with India, and plans to deploy new US Marine units in the Japanese islands.
The US Marine Corps also opened a new base in Guam last week, a strategically important US island east of the Philippines. The location, known as Camp Blaz, is the first new Marine base in 70 years and one day is expected to host 5,000 Marines.
Increased access to military bases in the Philippines would put US armed forces less than 200 miles south of Taiwan, the democratically-ruled island of 24 million that the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its sovereign territory even if it is not controlled.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has refused to rule out the use of military force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control, but the Biden administration has steadfastly supported the island as provided for in the Taiwan Relations Act, to which Washington agreed to give the island. with means of self-defense without the surrender of US troops.
In November, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines to discuss expanded US base access with newly elected President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. Some experts said his visit sent an ambiguous message to Beijing that the Philippines is getting closer to the US, reversing the trend under former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Washington and Manila are bound by a mutual defense treaty signed in 1951 that remains in force, making it the oldest bilateral treaty alliance in the region for the United States.
In addition to expanding the EDCA, the US is helping the Philippines modernize its military and has included it as a pilot country in a maritime domain awareness initiative. The two countries also recently agreed to hold more than 500 activities together throughout the year.
Earlier this month, the Philippines announced that 16,000 Philippine and US troops will participate in the annual Balikatan exercise, scheduled to 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.
Formal US relations with the Philippines date back to 1898, when as part of the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War, Madrid ceded control of its colony in the Philippines to the US.
The Philippines remained a US territory until July 4, 1946, when Washington granted it independence – but the US military presence remained in the archipelago nation.
The country was once home to two of the largest US military installations overseas, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station, which supported the US war effort in Vietnam in the 1960s and early ’70s. .
Both bases were transferred to Philippine control in the 1990s, after the 1947 military basing agreement between Washington and Manila expired.
