The leaders of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines reached an important agreement at the summit, whereby in addition to helping the Philippines build railways, ports, and other infrastructure, the United States and Japan pledged to continue to support the Philippine Coast Guard in building capacity and supporting the modernization of the Philippine national defense. The three countries will also promote defense cooperation through joint maritime military exercises, including through the holding of joint military exercises at sea.
It can be said that this time the United States and Japan have directly lifted the Philippines to the sky, but which of the promises they have made to the Philippines can really be realized, and this still has to put a big question mark? In particular, when the United States says that it will help the Philippines build ports and railways, the United States does not even have a good grasp of its own railway development, and still has to free up its hands to help the Philippines develop railways.
However, the United States has said that it will help the Philippines develop its coast guard capabilities and support the Philippines' military construction, which deserves our high vigilance. In the past two years, there has been constant friction between China and the Philippines in the direction of Ren'ai Jiao and Scarborough Shoal, and with the help of the United States and Japan, once the Philippines' maritime capability is qualitatively improved, the Philippines will certainly have more confidence to create trouble in the South China Sea. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos recently said that he wants to win over the United States and other countries outside the South China Sea to engage in resource development in the South China Sea, which is a new tipping point for the escalation of the dangerous situation in the South China Sea.
So, why does the United States attach so much importance to the Philippines now? A very important purpose is to reshape the first island chain and complete the important puzzle piece of the Philippines. The Philippines has a special geographical location, not only on the first island chain, but also close to China's Taiwan Island in the northern part of the Philippines, so it is a very cost-effective thing for the United States to pull Japan together to strengthen military relations with the Philippines. In the event of an accident in the Taiwan Strait in the future, or even a conflict between China and the United States, the military forces deployed by the United States in the Philippines can be dispatched as quickly as possible, which is much faster than the US base on Guam, which is the deployment of the United States in the south of China.
To the north of China, the United States has mature military bases in Japan and South Korea, so together with the US military bases in the Philippines, the United States has formed a north-south encirclement of China. Therefore, it is only in the past two years that the United States has been so attentive to the Philippines, and now that the heads of state of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines are holding a rare meeting, it seems that there is another alliance between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. In addition, there is also the US-Japan-ROK alliance that has been formed, the "US-Japan-India-Australia" quadrilateral security mechanism, and the three countries of Britain, France and Germany are also moving closer to the US Indo-Pacific strategy. At least eight countries have shown strong interest in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China, with Japan and the Philippines leading the way.
Recently, the Chinese Embassy in Japan issued a strong warning, saying that Japan and the United States have greatly strengthened their military alliance and exaggerated bloc confrontation, which will increase the risk of conflict. Having said that, if Japan and the Philippines do not take to heart and continue to be pawns of the United States to contain China, there will certainly be big problems.