MANILA – August is shaping up as a busy month for defense diplomacy in the Philippines. In a historic first, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius dropped by Manila over the weekend to explore closer military cooperation and underscore shared concerns over maritime stability in the region. In a meeting with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro […]

The post Philippines roping in more allies in South China Sea fight appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Marking a first, the Philippines hosted “two-plus-two” talks between American and Filipino defense and diplomatic chiefs. By all indications, the high-level meeting among US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Philippine defense chief Gilberto Teodoro and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo was the most consequential of its kind yet. The […]

The post Marcos Jr cashing in on US while cooling fire with China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr kickstarted his third, and arguably most consequential, State of the Nation Address (SONA) this week with a clear sense of urgency. Although still enjoying majority support in authoritative surveys, the Filipino leader has suffered declining approval ratings due to perceived weakness in handling economic issues, even as the […]

The post Marcos Jr sets tone for epic clash with the Dutertes appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to Manila, wherein he thanked his Philippine counterpart for agreeing to attend the upcoming Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland. The Ukrainian leader had hoped to meet Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where the latter was the […]

The post Marcos-Zelensky love-in underlines Manila’s strategic shift appeared first on Asia Times.

US Marines joined Filipino counterparts on May 5, 2024, for a mock battle at a telling location: a small, remote territory just 100 miles off the southern tip of the contested island of Taiwan. The combat drill is part of the weekslong Exercise Balikatan that has brought together naval, air and ground forces of the […]

The post US emboldening Philippines to square off with China at sea appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Enter France as the latest Western power to side with the Philippines in its bubbling dispute with China in the South China Sea. While this year’s US-Philippine Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) joint military exercises are notable for their sheer size with over 17,000 participating troops, state-of-the-art missile system tests and drills provocatively near […]

The post France taking sides with Philippines vis-a-vis China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – This week, the Philippines and United States kicked off their largest-ever and most consequential joint Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games featuring as many as 16,000 troops including 11,000 American servicemen. Crucially, the two allies will conduct some of their drills outside the Philippines’ 12 nautical miles “territorial sea” in the South China Sea, a […]

The post Philippines arms up a two-front pushback on China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Just as Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finalized their joint communique after a special summit in Melbourne this week, yet another major incident erupted in the South China Sea. According to Philippine authorities, an armada of China Coast Guard (CCG) and Chinese maritime militia vessels “harassed, blocked, deployed water […]

The post China, Philippines at a sea fight breaking point appeared first on Asia Times.

WASHINGTON – “Our relationship with [China] is one of intense strategic competition. At the same time, the United States is committed to managing this competition responsibly so that it does not veer into miscalculation or conflict,” said US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink at a recent Atlantic Council […]

The post Philippines fortifying a Taiwan front line against China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Wu Shicun, chairman of China’s state-funded Huayang Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance, fired a shot across the Philippines’ bow by saying China should “show our swords when necessary” in the South China Sea. The Chinese maritime expert added that “patience and self-control from China would not be enough” to manage the sea disputes, according […]

The post Philippines arming up for D-Day with China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – The family feud between the Duterte and Marcos dynasties reached a crescendo when the former and incumbent Philippine presidents publicly accused each other of drug addiction. During a rally in his hometown of Davao in the southern Philippines, former President Rodrigo Duterte accused his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of being a longtime “drug […]

The post Marcos-Duterte feud a reflection of the New Cold War appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Soon after Lai Ching-te won Taiwan’s January 13 presidential election, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr made an unprecedented congratulatory call to the independence-leaning new leader who’s firmly in Beijing’s crosshairs. According to official reports of the conversation, Marcos Jr congratulated Lai as “Taiwan’s next president” while looking forward to “close collaboration, strengthening mutual interests […]

The post Fret not Taiwan, Marcos Jr has your back appeared first on Asia Times.

Philippine aspirations to hit upper-middle-income country status were derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but economic planners remain optimistic that this target can be achieved by 2025.  If a new era of global political and economic rebalancing is taking place, there are clear internal challenges and international economic opportunities for the Philippines to navigate. The Philippine […]

The post Philippine economics in a rebalancing world appeared first on Asia Times.

After an almost seven-year imprisonment, former senator Leila De Lima was released on bail in November 2023. In her speech, she thanked the Marcos administration for respecting the rule of law.  De Lima’s choice of words is not accidental. It was a loaded statement to fan the growing political wedge between the Marcos and the Duterte families […]

The post Deep, dark cracks in the Marcos-Duterte alliance appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – “History has proven that they are not serious and have no sincerity when it comes to peace negotiations,” declared Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte in a spirited speech castigating the Marcos Jr administration’s plan to renew long-stalled peace negotiations with communist rebels. “They will use this peace negotiation to betray the government and […]

The post Marcos Jr in a delicate and dangerous three-front war appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – “I do not think anybody wants to go to war,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said following his meeting with Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco last week. “We really should view this as a work in progress. It’s a process,” Marcos Jr […]

The post Marcos doubles down on his double game with China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – The annual Kamandag exercises now underway in the Philippines are making a multinational splash with an estimated 2,749 participating troops, including 1,732 from the Philippines, 902 from the US, 57 from South Korea, 50 from Japan and eight from the United Kingdom. Significantly, the show of unified force comes as the Philippines and […]

The post Philippines becoming a military hub for checking China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – “Are you sure you (Filipinos) want to get into a fight where you will be the battleground?”, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned at a recent forum in the city-state when asked about rising tensions in the South China Sea. The leader’s comments came shortly after yet another incident that risked tilting […]

The post The Philippines in a lonely fight with China appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – “I am honored to have the opportunity to be the first Japanese Prime Minister to speak here at the Congress of the Philippines, which has a long tradition,” Fumio Kishida said before the Special Joint Session of Philippine legislature during his two-day official visit to Manila last week. During the historic speech, the […]

The post Japan-Philippines moving toward US-led trilateral alliance appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is overseeing a historic expansion in military cooperation with the United States, putting the Southeast Asian nation on a collision course with China in the South China Sea. A new report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank […]

The post Philippines in historic US-backed military base expansion appeared first on Asia Times.