The Philippines has agreed to provide the US (United States) with extended access to its military bases to counter China’s aggressive territorial posturing in the South China Sea, implying that the US armed forces will have the upper hand with strategic footings on the edge of South Eastern region of South China Sea close to self-ruled Taiwan, CNN reported.
As per the further updates, “The newly announced deal between the Philippines and the United States will provide the US with access to four more locations under an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) dated back to 2014, which would allow the US soldiers to rotate in a total of nine bases across the Philippines, according to the CNN reports.
In recent months, the US has been putting efforts and stepping up to the work to nurture the expansion of the Indo-Pacific security options amid the rising concerns over China’s growing activities in the region.
On his part, Llyod Austin, US Defence Secretary, quoted during a visit to the Philippines capital Manila on Thursday, “The Philippines and the US are committed to strengthening their mutual relationships and capacities to stop armed attacks.
Furthermore, Defence Secretary Llyod Austin added that the current strategic partnership is just another step towards modernising our alliance, which is particularly important as the People’s Republic of China carries forward to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea”.
Additionally, on Thursday, the announcement came followed by a wave of high-profile military agreements of the US across the Indo-Pacific region, which includes sharing plans regarding defence technologies with India and planning to station US Marine units in Japanese Islands.
As per the sources, US Marine Corps opened a new military base on Guam last week, which has strategic importance for the US Island east of the Philippines, which is known as Camp Blaz, the first new Marine base in 70 years and is expected to host around 5,000 Marines one day.
The ANI (Asia News International) has stated that A mutual defence treaty was signed in 1951 between both nations, which binds Manila and Washington, which makes it the oldest bilateral treaty alliance in the region for the United States.