US, Philippines Increase Cooperation Amid China’s Threats

President Joe Biden meets with President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office at the White House on May 1, 2023. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The United States and the Philippines will strengthen their alliance through increased military cooperation, including the supply of air and maritime capabilities from the United States to the Philippines.

President Joe Biden met with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on May 1, where the two agreed to increase military coordination.

“[This meeting is] about strengthening our important alliance with the Philippines, which has been a force for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific for over 70 years,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press conference on Monday.

The Biden-Marcos summit is the main event of a four-day U.S. visit by Marcos, which began on April 30—the first such visit by a Philippine president in over a decade.

The two leaders reaffirmed their nations’ 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which requires the United States to act in the event of an armed attack on the Philippine military. They agreed that the United States will transfer three C-130 aircraft and consider the possibility of sending maritime patrol vessels to the Philippines.

China Increasing Aggression Against the Philippines

The summit comes during a period of heightened tension in the Indo-Pacific, during which China’s communist regime has repeatedly violated the Philippines’ economic rights by illegally fishing in the nation’s waters and temporarily blinded a Filipino Coastguard crew with a military-grade laser.

“What we’ve seen recently is a series of continuing provocative acts on the part of China testing and probing into the Philippines’ waters, in areas of deep concern to the Philippines,” a senior Biden administration official said during a press call on Sunday.

The official added that Marcos was loath to position his nation between the United States and China in their ongoing competition, but was now being forced to diversify the Philippines’ security engagements in light of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued belligerence.

“The Chinese have taken some steps that have been really concerning to the Philippine leadership,” the official said.

“Just earlier in the week, the Chinese ambassador to Manila gave a speech about changing circumstances in the Indo-Pacific and appeared to talk about the safety and security of the nearly 200,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan. I think many in the Philippines saw that as a veiled threat.”

During that incident, China’s ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, said that China would not renounce using force against Taiwan, including the 150,000 Filipinos living there.

The Philippines must cease its defense cooperation with the United States “if you care about the 150,000 overseas [Filipinos in Taiwan],” he said.

Huang’s comments took particular aim at the U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), announced earlier this year, which expanded U.S. military presence in the Philippines by providing access to four more Philippine military bases.

“The addition of these new EDCA locations will allow more rapid support for humanitarian and climate-related disasters in the Philippines, and respond to other shared challenges,” the Pentagon said in a statement at the time.

Beijing, however, claims that the base access could allow the United States to defend Taiwan, which the CCP considers a rogue province.

Marcos said the Philippines will not be used as a staging point for military action, however, and National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that U.S. access to the four EDCA bases was just one aspect of a much broader alliance.

“There’s a whole lot more to this alliance and this bilateral relationship than just these four sites,” Kirby said during a press call on Monday.

“This alliance doesn’t exist because of one other nation. ... It’s not designed for this purpose.”