[BenarNews] Giving the United States greater access to Philippine military bases would allow the superpower to respond more swiftly to flashpoints in the region, as potential conflicts brew in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, analysts say.
The U.S. and Philippine defense secretaries announced this week that the allies had struck a deal for granting American forces access to four more military bases in the Philippines, under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
The U.S. will now be able to rotate its forces in and out of and pre-deploy equipment and materiel at a total of nine bases in the Southeast Asian country strategically located in the South China Sea and close to Taiwan. |