The Department of National Defense and National Security Council respond to Senator Imee Marcos’ claim of China’s plan of a missile attack.
The Philippine is also demanding that China pay over $1 million for damages from last month’s incident in Ayungin shoal.
Indonesia and Singapore grapple with threats of Islamist radicalization. Pyongyang slams the joint drills of US, Japan and South Korea.
Meanwhile, the US is not keen to add more members in the AUKUS alliance, an Australia diplomat shares.
MANILA — The Philippines and Japan had signed a status of forces agreement, allowing many Japanese troops to be deployed temporarily on Philippine soil for combat training, military exercises, and humanitarian operations.
The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) agreement is similar to the two existing Visiting Forces Agreements (VFA) with Australia and the United States.
“It’s just tailored to conform to the requirements of the domestic laws of each country,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. told a news conference after the Philippines and Japan signed the security deal.
Selection was very competitive and usually just one Filipino candidate got selected. Graduates rendered return military service for a minimum of eight years following four years of education and training. While the selection process was conducted annually, not every year found a worthy candidate.
No group has owned the open letter. The authenticity of the open letter cannot be determined. However, it exposed deep cracks within the administration’s national security team.
It also showed the differences in how security officials manage the West Philippine Sea dispute with China.
Curiously, post-debate polling showed little change in the political standing of Mr. Biden and his Republican opponent, former Pres. Donald Trump, a glimpse perhaps into the depth of partisan divide and the future of governance with all its relevance to America’s foreign entanglements.
Senior Coast Guard officials from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian countries have proposed region-wide drills to enhance maritime cooperation and avoid potential accidents at sea, as detailed in a document obtained by Asia-Pacific Insights.
The greater part of the defense assistance for Taiwan will go toward submarine infrastructure and development ($3.3 billion) – money that will go to US submarine manufacturers, not the Asia-Pacific region – and replenishing US weapons to Taiwan and regional allies.
In a command conference with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the military brass presented an updated territorial defense plan, including several options on how to conduct rotation and resupply (RoRe) missions and other military operations in the West Philippine Sea.
Visiting troops in the country’s western frontiers, facing the disputed Spratlys in the South China Sea, Marcos said the Philippines is not interested in causing trouble in the region.
I did not yet see it then more than I see it now. But the painful truth as often happens when a power vacuum is created is that the domestic elites simply wish to monopolize power for themselves under the guise of nationalism or patriotism.
Salvador Medialdea, the former executive secretary in the Duterte administration, firmly denied the “gentleman’s agreement” between the former president and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
