Austin is in the Philippines to discuss increased US military presence

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in the Philippines Wednesday to negotiate the deployment of US troops and weapons in additional Philippine military camps to bolster deterrence against China’s increasingly aggressive moves on Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.

On Tuesday evening, Austin flew to Manila from South Korea, where he met with his counterpart and said the US would increase the deployment of advanced weapons such as fighters and bombers to the Korean Peninsula to support joint exercises with South Korean forces in response to North Korea’s rise. . nuclear threat.

The Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, has been a key front in the US fight against terrorism, especially since the September 11, 2001 attacks. On Wednesday, Austin was scheduled to meet with a small contingent of U.S. counterterrorism forces in the south, where they have for years provided intelligence and combat advice to Filipino troops fighting a decades-long Muslim insurgency that has waned considerably but remains a key threat.

More recently, U.S. forces stepped up and expanded joint combat readiness and disaster response training with Philippine troops on the Southeast Asian nation’s west coast, which faces the South China Sea, and in its northern Luzon region across the sea from the Taiwan Strait.

US forces were given access to five Philippine military camps where they could stay indefinitely on rotation under a 2014 defense pact called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

In October, the US requested access to more of its forces and weapons at an additional five Philippine military camps, mostly in the core northern region of Luzon, in accordance with the 2014 EDCA. The request will be high on the agenda of the Austin meetings in the Philippines, Philippine officials said.

“Secretary Austin’s visit will certainly be linked to many ongoing discussions on the EDCA websites,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez said at a news briefing Tuesday in the capital Manila.

Romualdez said Austin will hold talks Thursday with his Philippine defense colleague Carlito Galvez Jr. and national security adviser Eduardo Ano. Austin will meet separately with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June and has since taken steps to improve relations with Washington.

The US Defense Secretary is the latest American leader to visit the Philippines since Vice President Kamala Harris, who flew into the country in November as a sign of a thaw in relations after a tense period under Marcos predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

During his time at the helm of the country since 2016, Duterte has maintained close ties with China and Russia, while at the same time he threatened to sever relations with Washington, kick out visiting US troops, and cancel a major defense pact that allows thousands of US military personnel to visit every year for major operations. large-scale combat training.

Romualdes said the Philippines should cooperate militarily with Washington to prevent any escalation of tensions between China and Taiwan – not only over a negotiated alliance, but also to prevent a major conflict.

“We are in a Catch-22 situation. If China takes military action in Taiwan, it will affect us – and the entire ASEAN region, but mainly us, Japan and South Korea,” Romualdes told the Associated Press, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional organization from 10 countries. bloc that includes the Philippines.

The Philippines and ASEAN member states Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan, have long been involved in increasingly intense territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The US is considered an important counterbalance to China in the region and has pledged to stand up for the Philippines if Philippine forces, ships, or aircraft are attacked in contested waters.

The Philippines used to host two of the largest US Navy and Air Force bases outside of the American mainland. The bases were closed in the early 1990s after an extension was rejected by the Philippine Senate, but U.S. troops returned for large-scale combat exercises with Philippine troops in accordance with the 1999 Traveling Troops Agreement.

In 2014, the Allies signed the EDCA, which allows more U.S. forces to remain in rotational groups within Philippine military camps, where they can build depots, living quarters, joint training centers and store combat equipment other than nuclear weapons. The Philippine constitution prohibits the permanent deployment of foreign troops and their participation in local hostilities.

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