The US and the Philippines begin formal negotiations this week to increase rotational presence of US forces in the Southeast Asian country, deploying aircraft, ships, supplies and troops for humanitarian and maritime security operations.
The widening military cooperation, which includes the use of local bases for temporary deployment, signals rapidly warming security relations between the allies as the Philippines looks to the US to help counter a newly assertive China.
“We stand ready to tap every resource, to call on every alliance to do what is necessary to defend what is ours, to secure our nation and to keep our people safe,” Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario told a news conference at the main Philippine army base in Manila.
Del Rosario said the security framework agreement would improve maritime security while the Philippine military builds up its own capability for territorial defense.
The talks coincide with a resurgence of US warships, planes and personnel in the region as Washington turns its attention to China and shifts its foreign, economic and security policy toward Asia.
Friction between China and the Philippines, and other countries in the region, over disputed territories in the oil and gas rich South and East China seas has surged since last year due to several naval standoffs and fraying diplomatic efforts to forge a regional agreement on maritime conduct.
Actual negotiations for a new agreement begin tomorrow in Manila and both sides hope to conclude talks this year, or after four rounds of discussions, said Carlos Sorreta, head of the US desk at the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It’s not a basing agreement,” Sorreta, spokesman for the four-member negotiating team, told a news conference.
The Philippines kicked out US military bases in 1992 and years later allowed US troops to return for training and joint exercises. The new deal will expand these activities.
The allies have been in talks since 2011, even before US President Barack Obama announced his administration’s “pivot to Asia” policy as Washington withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“These negotiations will lead to incremental security benefits and cooperation rather than a fundamental shift in the regional military balance of power,” Patrick Cronin, of the US-based Center for a New American Security, told reporters. “These talks are an important symbol of a refashioned alliance.”
Cronin said the upgrading of the alliance “will serve the interests of both nations and the region,” adding that the pre-positioned equipment would improve readiness to deal with natural disasters and other contingencies.
Left-wing activists criticized Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s government for allowing a de facto basing agreement with the US.
“The Philippines will be one giant weapons depot for US forces,” said Renato Reyes of Bayan (“nation”), an umbrella organization of anti-US activist groups.
Philippine officials said the new military agreement did not need any approval from lawmakers, but the negotiating team promised to brief the Philippine Congress and the press at the end of every round of talks.
Sorreta insisted the new deal would not give US forces exclusive use of local facilities or a permanent presence.
“We are engaging in this exercise of negotiations not to please the United States, but in pursuit of our own interests,” Sorreta said. “We are certainly for peace, but we are not for appeasement.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not