Austin in the Philippines to discuss a larger US military presence

MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the Philippines on Wednesday for talks on deploying U.S. forces and weapons to other Philippine military camps to increase deterrence against China’s increasingly aggressive crackdown on Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.

Austin flew in from South Korea, where he said the US would increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers on the Korean peninsula to strengthen joint training with South Korean forces in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.

In the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia and a key front in the US fight against terrorism, Austin visited the southern city of Zamboanga and met Filipino generals and a small contingent of US counter-terrorism forces stationed at a local military camp, the regional Philippine military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said. The more than 100 US service members have for years provided information and combat advice to Filipino troops fighting a decades-long Muslim insurgency that has waned significantly but remains a key threat.

More recently, US forces have intensified and expanded joint training with Filipino troops on the Southeast Asian nation’s west coast, which faces the South China Sea, and in the northern Luzon region across the Taiwan Straits focus on combat readiness and disaster relief.

American forces were granted access to five Philippine military camps, where they could rotate indefinitely under a 2014 defense pact, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

In October, the US sought access for a larger number of its forces and weapons in five more military camps, mainly in the north. That demand would be high on the agenda of meetings in Austin, according to Filipino officials.

“Secretary Austin’s visit will definitely and obviously relate to many of the ongoing discussions at EDCA sites,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez said at a news conference.

Austin was scheduled to hold talks with his Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez Jr. and National Security Advisor Eduardo Ano Thursday, Romualdez said. Austin will separately call President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June and has since taken steps to strengthen ties with Washington.

The US defense chief is the latest senior official to visit the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris in November, a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’ predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte had maintained close ties with China and Russia, at one point threatening to sever ties with Washington, dump American forces abroad, and scrap a major defense pact.

Romualdez said the Philippines must work with Washington to prevent an escalation in tensions between China and self-governing Taiwan — not just over the treaty alliance, but also to prevent a larger conflict.

“We are in a catch 22 situation. If China takes military action against Taiwan, we will be affected – and the entire ASEAN region, but mostly we, Japan and South Korea,” Romualdez told The Associated Press, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is from ten-nation region block that includes the Philippines.

The Philippines and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, along with Taiwan, are locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The US is seen as a key counterweight to China in the region and has pledged to defend the Philippines if Philippine forces, ships or planes are attacked in the contested waters.

The Philippines used to be home to two of the US Navy and Air Force’s largest bases outside of the American mainland. The bases closed in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.

The Philippine constitution prohibits the permanent deployment of foreign troops and their involvement in local fighting.