The Defense Department on Monday announced the locations of four new naval bases in the Philippines, securing three of the spots in the northeastern part of the island to better counter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.
Locations of new U.S. military bases in Philippines
The U.S. will create two naval bases in the Cagayan province covering Luzon, the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago that lies directly across from Taiwan in the South China Sea.
Naval Base Camilo Osias will be located near the municipality of Santa Ana, Cagayan. The other base in Caguyan will be near the Lal-lo Airport.
Another military base, called Melchor Dela Cruz, will be located in Gamu, Isabela, also on the Luzon point.
A fourth military base will be located at Balabac Island in the province of Palawan, located in the western part of the Philippines near the Spratly Islands, a major archipelago in the disputed South China Sea.
Tensions between the US and China are high over fears that Beijing will seek to take control of Taiwan in the coming years. China has also angered its regional neighbors with aggressive efforts to assert control over the South China Sea, which is crucial to global trade.
America’s new bases in the Philippines will provide a major boost to the U.S. presence in the region, as part of efforts to neutralize China’s influence.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said the expansion in the Philippines “makes our training more resilient.”
“It is about creating regional readiness but also being able to respond to any type of disaster or any type of humanitarian disaster that could arise in the region,” she told reporters at a Monday briefing.
Beijing has reacted angrily to the expansion of the U.S. military in the Philippines.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy in the Philippines said the agreement will “seriously endanger regional peace and stability and drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife and damage its economic development.”
“Creating economic opportunities and jobs through military cooperation is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison and gouging flesh to heal wounds,” the spokesperson said after U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to the Philippines last month.
Washington already operates five military bases in the Philippines on a rotational basis, meaning they cannot station troops there permanently.
Those camps are located near Manila and in the south and east of the Philippines — but none were in the northern Luzon province, which is more strategically located.
The U.S. reached an agreement for the bases with the Philippines in 2014 called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the four new military bases in February during a trip to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, but did not disclose the planned locations.
Austin at the time called it a “big deal” and a sign of the “ironclad” partnership with the Indo-Pacific nation.
The U.S. has already pledged $82 million for improvements at the existing five bases in the Philippines and intends to invest more funds to get the new camps up and running.