but they do offer real benefits for the Philippines and indicate the rhetoric about a comprehensive alliance is more than just talk.”īroadly, Mr Marcos’ visit to the US is seen as having affirmed and deepened the alliance. “The Biden administration rolled out important initiatives on those fronts this week. “The Marcos government needs to show tangible benefits of a closer relationship with the US to the Filipino people, especially on the issues he speaks about most often, which include food and energy security, climate change and development,” they wrote. “With so much progress so quickly on defence cooperation, both governments entered this week worried about perceptions that the partnership was unbalanced in favour of security,” CSIS analysts wrote in a paper published on Thursday, before Mr Marcos’ speech. He also said he had assured China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who visited Manila in April, that the bases are not intended to be military bases to attack anyone or any country.Īsked at the dialogue at the CSIS whether the US had requested Philippine troops to join combat operations should war break out between the US and China over Taiwan, Mr Marcos said: “The short answer, is no.”ĭefence cooperation, including modernising the Philippine military, has tended to overshadow Mr Marcos’ investment and trade agenda. On Thursday, Mr Marcos maintained that the original idea was to enhance the bases to better deal with frequent natural disasters in the Philippines. US officials have rejected suspicions that the bases could be staging grounds for offensive actions in the contingency of a war over Taiwan. Three of the bases under the new agreement are in the northern Philippines, and one is in the south, in Palawan. The Philippines in April announced that the US would be allowed to use four more of its military bases, bringing the total to nine.
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