When the U. S. The U. S. and Philippines announced a major deal in February to expand U. S. military access. With the U. S. government at Philippine bases, it was unclear which sites would be part of the deal.
On Monday, the Philippine government after all unveiled the four new “appropriate and mutually beneficial” locations to which U. S. troops will have access, sites that reflect developing considerations on both sides about China’s role in the region, namely with regard to Taiwan and the South China Sea.
U. S. and Philippine officials have said the new deal does not mean the United States will operate its own military bases in the Southeast Asian archipelago, as it has for decades. until 1992. On the contrary, the agreement extends until 2014 for the reinforced defense of the two countries. Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which already allows U. S. forces to exercise with Filipino infantrymen and be stationed indefinitely at five sites.
Now, the U. S. military is taking over the U. S. military. The U. S. Navy can also explore 3 other spaces in the northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, adding a naval base, military camp, and airport, as well as an undisclosed fourth site in Balabac, the southernmost island township in western Palawan province.
“These new sites will decorate the interoperability of the U. S. military. “The U. S. Department of Defense and the Philippines will allow us to respond in combination in a more transparent manner to address a number of demanding situations not unusual in the Indo-Pacific region,” the U. S. Department of Defense said. The U. S. Air Force said on a Monday.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters last month that he had to triumph over opposition from local government officials, who were wary of the prospect of receiving U. S. forces and getting caught in the crossfire of a possible showdown with China. We explained to them why it was vital for us to have this,” Marcos said, “and why it will be smart for their province. “
The Pentagon also noted that the U. S. government is not yet in the process of doing so. The U. S. Department of Defense will fund infrastructure innovations at those sites and that “those investments will also boost economic expansion and employment opportunities in their respective provinces,” Philippine National Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday, announcing the new locations. that the investment will now have to be budgeted through Congress in Washington.
Here’s what you want to know about express locations.
Two of the new locations are in the northern province of Cagayan, about 250 miles of water from Taiwan’s southernmost point, the democratic self-governing island that China claims as its own and that the United States has vowed to defend.
U. S. troops may already know one site: the Camilo Osias Naval Base in Santa Ana City in the Philippines, a former arena for joint army training as recently as last year. The forces will also be able to use Lal-lo International Airport, which opened in 2014 with a single runway and is located 35 miles southwest of Santa Ana.
The United States to those two Philippine sites can guarantee an immediate reaction to any clashes in the Taiwan Strait, said Rommel Banlaoi, a security analyst and president of the Philippine Society for Intelligence and Security Studies.
That component of the country is also prone to typhoons, and Banlaoi says all U. S. operations are not allowed to be in the process of being a typhoon. U. S. policies there will be “nature, climate, and climate sensitive,” meaning the U. S. will not be “nature, climate-sensitive. “The U. S. can conduct humanitarian missions, as the two countries have claimed their increased cooperation will facilitate, while providing U. S. forces with a critical opportunity to exercise “during those kinds of difficulties,” Banlaoi said.
The provincial governor, Manuel Mamba, had strongly opposed sheltering U. S. forces and said Cagayan could simply be a “magnet for an attack should a war break out. “He eventually relented and told Kyodo News in March that he hoped to return to his previous reservations: “Because if I’m right, I’m really afraid of what will happen to my people. “
Just south of Cagayan is Isabela province, where the Melchor F camp is located. Dela Cruz, in the city of Gamu. Lately it is the headquarters of a department of the Philippine army.
Cagayan and Isabela are mountainous regions that, according to Banlaoi, provide a good enough defense for all troops stationed there. Granting U. S. troops to Isabela in particular, he says, can open up opportunities for the structure of airstrips or garages for high-powered weapons. .
Collin Koh, a regional security expert at the Singapore-based Rajaratnam School of International Studies, says three bases in the northern Philippines would also help the U. S. The U. S. government should forget about the main waterways of the first island chain, a series of islands including Taiwan and Japan bordering the Pacific Ocean.
Koh says the Bashi Canal, a waterway between Taiwan and the northern Philippines, may allow Chinese forces to make their way into the Pacific. However, with the United States close, Beijing may feel dissuaded from doing so. “make sure the Chinese don’t escape so easily,” he told TIME.
At the lower end of the stretch of islands that make up the province of Palawan is Balabac Island, the fourth location selected for expansion, the exact site remains undisclosed. The province is already home to a former EDCA site: Antonio Bautista Air Base.
Balabac Island is just 160 miles southeast of Mischief Reef, a land-based feature that is a component of the hotly contested Spratly organization of islands in the South China Sea, a waterway through which billions of dollars of global industry pass each year. For years, the Philippines has become increasingly concerned about China’s alleged territorial incursions into the South China Sea, adding to the recovery and militarization of certain geographical features.
The United States has sided with its best friend the Philippines in maritime disputes. But Banlaoi says Balabac is also a strategic location for U. S. forces because of the quality of its water. “It can accommodate other types of submarines,” he says, which can be critical for maritime defense operations across the region.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday expressed Beijing’s dissatisfaction with the expanded U. S. -Philippines cooperation agreement, saying the new EDCA sites “will create more tension and less peace and stability in the region. “
Philippine President Mark Jr. had already taken pains not to blatantly take sides in the rivalry between U. S. superpowers. The U. S. , the country’s longtime military ally, and China, its largest trading partner. But Euan Graham, a maritime security expert at the International Institute for Strategy Studies, told TIME that the country simply cannot be tied up if China and the United States end up going to war.
“Geography has already compromised the Philippines,” Graham says. “There is no neutrality option for the Philippines in the case of the Taiwan conflict, because of where it is. “
Graham says the country had to do a “cost-benefit analysis” and showed it prioritizes its defense. “I deserve whatever Manila has decided. “
The Beijing-Manila relationship is only tense, especially with the latter’s reaffirmation of its military alliance with Washington and recent outbursts, such as when a Chinese coast guard dispatch aimed a military-grade laser at a Philippine shipment on the West Coast. in February, alleging that the Philippines entered Chinese waters. The United States and the Philippines are also expected to conduct their largest joint military training later this month.
But Graham says that if the Philippines follows this path, especially the expansion of EDCA sites, it necessarily jeopardizes regional peace, as China warns. Instead, he suggests that “this makes clashes less likely, because if the U. S. is less likely to fight the U. S. It raises the threat that China will do anything to enter into a direct confrontation with the US. U. S.