Philippines Expands US Access To Military Bases

Manila, Feb 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2023 ) :The United States and the Philippines announced a deal Thursday to give US troops access to another four bases in the Southeast Asian nation.

The agreement to expand cooperation in "strategic areas of the country" was made during a visit by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

It comes as the countries seek to repair ties that were fractured in recent years.

"The Philippines and the United States are proud to announce their plans to accelerate the full implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the agreement to designate four new Agreed Locations in strategic areas of the country," defense officials said in a joint statement.

Talks were ongoing for a potential fifth base, a senior Philippine official told AFP earlier.

The two countries have a decades-old security alliance that includes a mutual defence treaty and the 2014 EDCA pact, which allows US troops to rotate through five Philippine bases, including those near disputed waters.

It also allows for the US military to store defence equipment and supplies on those bases.

EDCA stalled under Duterte, but Marcos has sought to accelerate its implementation.

Under the EDCA expansion unveiled Thursday, the United States will have access to at least nine military bases across the archipelago.

The new sites have not been identified, but it has been widely reported that most of the new bases will be on the main island of Luzon -- the closest Philippine landmass to Taiwan -- where the US already has access to two locations.

The fourth will reportedly be on the western island of Palawan, facing the Spratly Islands in the hotly contested South China Sea, taking the number of sites there to two.