US Expands Asia-Pacific Presence

Chinese government leaders are not pleased with the latest development in U.S. - Philippines relations.

After two days of talks, senior officials from the United States and the Philippines pledged Friday to enhance security cooperation. The former US colony is locked in increasingly acrimonious disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea.



China claims almost entire South China Sea
In Manila, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the Philippines was looking to doing more joint exercises with the United States as well as having a greater number of US troops rotate through the Southeast Asian country.

But that's not all. Additional U.S. military personnel are going to other parts of the SE Asia-Pacific region.

Obama, on a visit to Australia, announced that the United States would post up to 2,500 Marines in the northern city of Darwin by 2016-17.

The United States also plans to forward-deploy littoral combat ships in Singapore, a longtime US partner with a strategic position.

And to compound Chinese consternation, there's this development.

The Philippines is considering a United States proposal to deploy surveillance aircraft on a temporary, rotating basis to enhance its ability to guard disputed areas in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Friday.

Two days of talks in Washington this week on security ties between the two allies include plans to deploy more littoral combat ships and spy aircraft, Gazmin said.

Curiously, the new military deployments come as the Obama administration announces cuts in military expenditures. How's that work?