The United States and the Philippines plan to announce new sites for an expanded Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) as soon as possible, which provides Western strength to military bases in the Southeast Asian country.
Last month, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. granted the U. S. the U. S. theThe U. S. military bases are four military bases, in addition to the five existing locations under the 2014 EDCA, amid China’s growing assertiveness regarding the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Speaking at Basa Air Base in Manila, one of EDCA’s existing sites, the U. S. Secretary of the Air Force was speaking at Basa Air Base in Manila. U. S. Secretary Frank Kendall said the defense agreements between the two countries “don’t address any specific issue. “
Photo: Reuters
The EDCA provides the U. S. bases. The U. S. Department of Commerce is in the Philippines for joint training, pre-positioning equipment, and structural services such as airstrips, fuel storage, and military housing, but not a permanent presence.
While the Philippines has yet to officially identify the sites, a former military leader said the U. S. has not been able to officially identify the sites. The U. S. government has requested bases in Isabela, Zambales and Cagayan, all on the island of Luzon, facing north toward Taiwan, and Palawan in the southwest, near the disputed Spratly. Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea.
Local government leaders at potential EDCA sites supported the Manila resolution to allow the United States to have more bases, Philippine National Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez said at a joint news conference with Kendall.
Gálvez and Kendall were performing an innovative rite for the reconstruction of the runway of the Basa air base.
“Today’s occasion is a physical manifestation of our enhanced defense cooperation agreement, a key pillar of the U. S. -Philippines partnership,” Kendall said, adding that it is about building a seven-decade mutual defense treaty that the South China Sea implemented. .
“We are at a turning point in history and our cooperation will keep us on the path of peace and stability,” he said.
The reconstruction of the runway is the $82 million that the U. S. has made. The U. S. Department of Commerce has allocated infrastructure investments at all five existing EDCA sites.
“In the future, we expect the U. S. to be able to do so. “The U. S. has more EDCA projects,” Galvez said.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong (孫衛東) is scheduled to make a stopover in the Philippines starting Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.