US steps up presence in Philippines
Print Edition
US troops and military equipment will be sent to the Philippines on regular rotations, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said yesterday, adding that the two countries had begun joint patrols in the South China Sea.
The initiatives are designed so the United States does not increase its permanent footprint in its former colony, but demonstrate that the two countries are increasing security cooperation.
“There will be a regular, periodic presence here of American forces,” Carter said at a news briefing in Manila with Philippine Defense Minister Voltaire Gazmin.
China reacted coolly to the US deployment.
“Military exchanges by relevant countries should not target third parties, much less support a few countries in challenging China’s sovereignty and security, inciting regional contradictions and sabotaging regional peace and stability,” the foreign ministry said in response to Carter’s announcement.
“At present, the situation in the South China Sea is stable overall due to the common efforts of China and relevant regional countries. China resolutely opposes any country harming China’s sovereignty and security and sabotaging peace and stability in the South China Sea under any conditions,” the statement read.
The first US-Philippines joint patrol in the South China Sea was in March and there was a second early this month. They would occur “regularly” in the future, the Pentagon said.
The US has recently conducted such joint patrols in the South China Sea with Japan, but they are still relatively unusual.
Carter did not say specifically where in the South China Sea the patrols took place.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas.
A contingent of military aircraft and 200 airmen from US Pacific Air Forces would be at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a former US Air Force base, through the end of the month, Carter said.
In addition, up to 75 US troops, mostly Marines, would remain in the Philippines “on a rotational basis” after the conclusion of joint “Balikatan” US-Philippines military exercises this week. The troops would support “increased operations in the region,” the Pentagon said.
The announcement of new rotations comes just weeks after the two countries reached a separate security deal that allows a rotating US military presence at five bases in the Philippines.
The Philippines is one of the oldest US allies in Asia, and hosted permanent US military bases until 1992. But the country’s Senate voted to evict the US in 1991, and military cooperation dwindled.
The Bayan (Nation), an umbrella group of Philippine nationalist and anti-US organizations, dismissed an earlier deal, called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, as a move by the US military to create a permanent presence in the Philippines as a platform from which it could dominate the region.
“Our dispute with China can never be used as a reason to allow another country to violate our sovereignty,” its secretary-general, Renato Reyes, said in a statement.
“It cannot be used to justify the return of US bases under a questionable and open-ended agreement.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
