Philippines Military - MANILA, Philippines -- The United States is seeking an expansion of its military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense pact, U.S. and Philippine officials said, one of the initiatives Vice President Kamala Harris launched Monday during her visit to America's oldest treaty ally in Asia.
An announcement could come as soon as this week with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin set to meet with the Philippines' leadership in the coming days, including President Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos Jr. and acting Secretary of National Defense Carlito Galvez Jr.
Philippines Military
In addition to the potential expansion of the EDCA, the US is helping the Philippines modernize its military and has included the Philippines as a pilot country in a maritime domain awareness initiative. The two countries also recently agreed to more than 500 activities together throughout the year.
Why Did This Happen?
The US military presence in the Philippines falls under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed in 2014 which allows the US to rotate troops to specific bases and build facilities for both countries to use.
A former American colony, the Philippines used to host one of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.
Harris and her delegation also announced a range of U.S. assistance and initiatives to help the Philippines deal with climate change and looming food and energy crises, including talks on a proposed agreement that would provide the legal basis for U.S.
exports of nuclear equipment and material for energy to the Philippines. On Tuesday, Harris flies to the western Philippine island province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, to showcase the level of concern America has for keeping the busy waterway open for commerce and navigation and to assure allies like the Philippines.
The Philippines used to be home to two of the US military's largest overseas installations, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, which were transferred to Philippine control in the 1990s. A mutual defense treaty signed in 1951 remains in force, making it the oldest bilateral treaty alliance in the region for the United States.
The two countries built on the relationship with the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. A U.S. official told reporters that new areas have been identified to be developed to expand joint security cooperation and training.
He did not provide details, including the type of military facilities, locations and the number of American military personnel to be deployed in those sites, saying the projects would have to be finalized with the Philippines.
Earlier this month, the US announced it would station a newly redesignated Marine unit in Okinawa, Japan, with advanced intelligence and surveillance capabilities, as well as the ability to fire anti-ship missiles. One US official described the move as one of the most significant adjustments to US military force posture in the region in years.
Okinawa sits roughly 200 miles off of northern Taiwan, roughly the same distance the Philippines is from the southern end of the independent democratic island. Last week, the Marine Corps officially opened a new base on Guam, a strategically important island east of the Philippines.
Camp Blaz is the first new Marine base in 70 years and one day is expected to host 5,000 Marines. In 2014, the allies signed the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows larger numbers of American forces to stay in rotating batches within Philippine military camps, where they can build warehouses, living quarters, joint training facilities and store combat equipment, except nuclear weapons.
The Philippines could take over those buildings and facilities when the Americans leave. Relations between the two countries were strained under Duterte, who threatened to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement, which would have made it far more difficult for US forces to access the Philippines.
Duterte relented and restored the agreement in July 2021. China's increasingly aggressive actions to fortify its claims to most of the busy waterway have alarmed smaller claimant nations. The U.S. has been helping strengthen the Philippine coast guard, which said it would welcome Harris aboard one of its biggest patrol ships moored in Palawan.
The increased access to military bases in the Philippines would give US armed forces a strategic footing on the southeastern edge of the South China Sea just 200 miles south of Taiwan, a move sure to anger Beijing, which claims much of the disputed waterway as its sovereign
territory. The high-level assurance came a day after China's coast guard forcibly seized Chinese rocket debris that Filipino navy personnel found and were towing to a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea. China, the Philippines and four other governments are locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes in the strategic waterway.
Two of the new areas proposed by the Americans were in northern Cagayan province, Bacarro said. Cagayan is across a strait from Taiwan and could serve as a crucial outpost in case tensions worsen between China and the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.
Large numbers of American forces stayed in local camps in southern Zamboanga city and outlying provinces at the height of threats posed by Muslim militants, which have eased in recent years. More than 100 U.S. military personnel currently remain in Zamboanga and three southern provinces, a Philippine military official told The Associated Press.
After the agreement was signed, the Americans launched construction projects in five Philippine camps and areas, including in the country's south, where U.S counterterrorism forces have helped train and provide intelligence to their Filipino counterparts for years.
Many of the projects were delayed by legal issues and other problems, Philippine defense officials said. The US military is seeking to expand its access to bases in the Philippines with an eye towards China, according to several US defense officials, as part of an ongoing shift in force posture in the Indo-Pacific region.
Sitting beside Harris in November, Marcos Jr. told reporters: "I have said many times, I do not see a future for the Philippines that does not include the United States, and that has come from the very long relationship with the US."
"An armed attack on the Philippines armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. Mutual defense commitments,” Harris told Marcos Jr. "And that is an unwavering commitment that we have to the Philippines."
In November, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Manila and discussed the possibility of access to more bases. During her trip, Harris visited a military base on Palawan, a narrow strip of land known more for its beaches on the Philippines' western edge.
Palawan faces the Spratly Islands, a series of small islands in the South China Sea, some of which China has militarized. Harris' visit sent an unambiguous message to Beijing that the Philippines are moving closer to the US, reversing the trend under the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte.
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