By Jose Katigbak
STAR Washington bureau (The Philippine Star)
STAR Washington bureau (The Philippine Star)
Locklear
WASHINGTON – US access to Philippine military bases would enable the United States to better help defend the country and assist Filipinos in the event of large-scale natural disasters, said Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of US Pacific Command.
He said both sides were looking at potential access agreements down the road that would be mutually beneficial, adding “we’re making good progress.”
To the perennial question of whether the US is going to reopen Subic or Clark, Locklear said, “I say the US isn’t going to open any more bases in the Asia-Pacific region. We’re not in that business.”
What the US is looking for is an opportunity to be able to have access to Philippine military bases to help in the country’s defense and help them respond to a broad range of contingencies, Locklear told a Pentagon news briefing on Thursday.
“The Filipinos are committed to developing a minimum credible defense and as a close ally we’re committed to assisting them where we can,” Locklear said.
“The US presence in the Asia-Pacific is not going anywhere,” he said.
Referring to China, he said the US-China military-to-military relationship is deepening in a “quite commendable” way that may help improve overall engagement between the two countries.
Locklear has been involved in security, strategic and economic dialogues with visiting Chinese officials in Washington over the past two days.
“We are having an ongoing dialogue with the Chinese military about … the rules of the road, of how we manage our relationship as the Chinese navy inevitably gets larger and inevitably will come out further from their territorial seas.
“The US presence in the Asia-Pacific is not going anywhere. So we have to manage our ability to operate around each other. And I think that it’s a doable thing,” he said.
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RELATED STORY:
US seeks increasing military presence in Philippines
Source: Press TV
The United States is negotiating an agreement to allow an increased deployment of American troops and weapons into the Philippines amid high tensions between the former U.S.-occupied territory and China over maritime disputes.
The deal is reportedly aimed at avoiding the more contentious issue of re-establishing permanent U.S. bases in the Philippines.
Both the Philippines and China have exerted claims over islands in the South China Sea.
“The U.S. is using these territorial disputes in the Western Pacific to stay relevant in the region. China is claiming nearly all of the South China Sea for itself, so the Philippines has little choice but to rely on the U.S. and also Japan,” Linh Dinh, political analyst and writer, said in an interview with Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Saturday.
“But it’s not clear if the U.S. can tip the balance should an actual war break out,” he added.
“In any case, the Philippines is too weak to confront China by itself. In 2012, China punished the Philippines by cutting back on the importation of Filipino bananas, so it’s not just using military means to intimidate the Philippines.”
The U.S. has been rotating troops into the Philippines’s bases supposedly to counter the military threat posed by China.
“The Chinese media are depicting countries like the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan as illegally occupying Chinese territories, and it’s time China does something about this humiliation. That’s the Chinese take on this. But the real reason for these conflicts is not honor but survival. It is about gaining access to oil and natural gas, and also fish,” Dinh noted.
“It is more than likely that China and the U.S will fight wars over oil in the future, and the Philippines, like many other countries, is just an American proxy.”
U.S. President Barack Obama met with Chinese officials in Washington on Thursday and warned China against using force or intimidation in maritime disputes with its neighbors.
The United States took control of the Philippines in 1898 following the Spanish-American War and maintained large military bases in the country for nearly a century.
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