In recent news, an agreement has been reached between the United States and the Philippines. AP News pointed out that this is in response to the growing tension between China and the U.S. along with neighboring countries including the Philippines.
“The U.S. has been taking steps to rebuild its military might in the Philippines more than 30 years after the closure of its large bases in the country and reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia in a starkly different post-Cold War era when the perceived new regional threat is an increasingly belligerent China.”
The two countries have been treaty allies since 1951 when the United States and the Philippines signed the Mutual Defense Treaty.
The agreement was conducted between U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos according to The U.S. Department of Defense’s website.
In one meeting, the Secretary of Defense said to the Philippines President, “You are a key ally and an important ally. And so, from the defense perspective, we will continue to work together with our great partners to build and modernize your capability as well as increase our interoperability.”
This was about the growing tension in the region of China’s aggressive foreign policy with its neighboring countries.
President Marcos added to this issue stating, “More specifically here, the Asia-Pacific region has become a complicated situation. It is something we can only navigate with the help of our partners and our allies.”
At the same time, the Philippines have also made agreements with China to keep the country neutral due to its stance on independent foreign policy.
“Both sides also agreed to resume talks on oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea and discuss cooperation on areas including solar, wind, electric vehicles, and nuclear power. Coastguards from China and the Philippines would also meet "as soon as possible" to discuss "pragmatic cooperation".”
This also included a direct communications channel between their foreign ministries on the South China sea and billions of dollars in investments by Chinese business executives to allow more Chinese businesses to produce renewable energy, strategic monitoring over electric vehicle production, and agriculture.
These recent discussions and meetings have shown that the geopolitical tensions in the region are high enough to warrant some talks of reaffirming negotiations between these nations. This is to help calm the high levels of tension as Geopolitical Futures points out.
“Relations between the Philippines and China have been strained in the past, with Beijing unhappy about Manila’s ties with the U.S. and Manila angry about Beijing poaching in its territorial waters.”
While these negotiations have shown cooperation between these three countries, it’s still too early to tell whether they will help in keeping the peace or will only allow more tension to increase.