The US has gained access to four additional military bases in the Philippines – a significant piece of real estate that will offer a front seat to monitor the Chinese around the South China Sea and Taiwan.
With the deal, Washington has closed a gap in the arc of US alliances stretching from North Korea and Japan to Australia in the south.
The missing link was the Philippines, which borders two of the biggest potential flashpoints, Taiwan and the South China Sea, or West Philippine Sea as Manila insists on calling it.
The U.S. already had limited access to five sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) — the new additions and expanded access, according to a Washington statement, “for humanitarian and climate-related disasters in the Philippines.” will allow for more rapid assistance, and respond to other common challenges”, possibly a veiled reference to countering China in the region.
The statement was made by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after meeting Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Manila on Thursday.
The US has not said where the new bases are but three of them could be on the island of Luzon off the northern coast of the Philippines, the only large piece of land near Taiwan – if you don’t count China.
The deal, which partially reverses America’s withdrawal from their former colony more than 30 years ago, is no small feat.
“There is no emergency in the South China Sea that does not require access to the Philippines,” says Gregory B. Pauling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The US is not looking for permanent bases. It’s about places, not bases.”
That is, he is seeking access to locations where “light and flexible” operations involving supply and surveillance can be conducted as needed, rather than where large numbers of troops would be deployed.
