Will the US and the Philippines resume military exercises in 2022? U.S. plans to strengthen its military presence in the Philippines

　　China News Service, October 15th. According to foreign media reports, Aquilino, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said at a briefing held in Manila that the United States and the Philippines plan to restore joint military exercises to their original scale in 2022. And will invite Australia and the United Kingdom to participate in the exercise as observers.

In addition, the United States intends to increase its military presence in the Philippines and allow the United States to build additional facilities in the Philippines.

　　Singapore’s "Lianhe Zaobao" quoted Bloomberg as saying that the United States wants to increase the "complexity and scale" of joint military exercises with the Philippines and plans to invite new partners to participate.

Data map: The Philippine-US joint military exercise codenamed "Side by Side" was held.

　　Philippine Army Commander Faustino said at the same briefing that countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and other countries that have "like-minded" with the United States and the Philippines can join the exercise as observers.

　　At the aforementioned briefing, Aquilino reiterated the United States' commitment to "jointly countering regional threats" with the Philippines.

He also pointed out that the United States has allocated US$12.5 million (approximately RMB 80.44 million) to the US-Philippines "Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement."

　　The report pointed out that the agreement aims to increase the US military presence in the Philippines and allow the US to build additional facilities in the Philippines.

Data map: Philippine-US joint exercise landing battle.

　　The United States, Britain and Australia just announced the establishment of a new alliance "AUKUS" in September. Some Southeast Asian countries worry that this will intensify the regional arms race, but the Philippines has expressed its support for the alliance.

The Philippine side also stated that the Philippine side "wants to maintain good defense ties with all countries in the Indo-Pacific."

　　According to reports, Philippine President Duterte decided to terminate the Philippine-US military exercise as early as when he took office.

Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the Philippines and the US military exercises were cancelled in 2019 and reduced in scale in 2020.