As China rises, Asia rises with it. The Southeast Asian state of the Philippines stood to rise alongside the rest of the region until relatively recently as the United States successfully convinces the Philippines to do otherwise.

For the fourth month now, US Typhon medium-range missile systems have been deployed in the Philippines under the pretext of joint exercises. This projection of US military power in Southeast Asia is unprecedented and is no less intense than during the Cold War. How did this happen, what else is being done by the Washington-Manila alliance and how can it affect the security of the region?

The four-day visit of a Vietnamese patrol vessel to the Philippines began on 4 August. The purpose of this visit is to conduct joint exercises in the waters of the South China Sea. It is worth stressing once again that the water area is one of the most vulnerable zones in the entire geopolitical space.  Moreover, it is on its territory that the current stage of the “Great World Game” is being played out.

The United States has taken yet another step toward shaping the Southeast Asian archipelago nation of the Philippines into an Ukraine-style proxy with which to encircle and contain China, this time in the form of a $500 million military assistance package for Manila.

While the ongoing conflict in Ukraine continues to dominate headlines, occasionally news stories surface regarding growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region as well. Driven primarily by the US, these headlines also include the proxies Washington is using to stir up an Ukraine-style conflict in the region.

At the end of May and beginning of June this year, another annual forum on the generalized theme of ensuring regional security was held in the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. A number of notable events took place, both in the plenary sessions and “on the sidelines”.

The annual US-Philippine military exercise Balikatan began on 22 April and will continue until 10 May. Originally planned as a relatively small and bilateral exercise, in recent years it has become the largest of those conducted by the United States in the Indo-Pacific region with the participation of one or more of its allies…

Since the onset of the 21^st Century, tensions around the world have been simmering. Great power rivalry has reached to a new apex since the culmination of the Cold War. The rivalry between China and the United States is considered one of the most significant and appalling issues of the era. Given the importance of maritime trade, the South China Sea and the Southeast Asian countries have emerged as the strategic focus of the rivalry between the two sides…

Tensions continue to grow in the Asia-Pacific region and more specifically in the South China Sea, where China faces off against the United States and its collection of regional proxies including Japan and Australia. While the US claims these growing tensions stem from China’s desire to undermine “freedom of navigation” and stability in the region, it is instead part of a decades-long US policy of containing China…

Japan is currently facing a number of serious political and economic challenges, forcing the country’s political-military leadership to respond accordingly. On January 30, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida presented an extensive policy report on the Japanese government’s plans for 2024 at the regular session of the country’s parliament, which meets once a year.  In the foreign policy section, Fumio Kishida outlined the following trunk lines…

Just a few years ago, the US and its allies made a strategic decision to increase their presence in the Pacific Ocean region. After the “agreement of the century” with Australia in 2021 to lay down a shipyard for the construction of Virginia-class nuclear submarines, the Americans placed emphasis on developing military cooperation with the countries of Southeast Asia. A Japan-Philippines-U.S. (JAPHUS) trilateral alliance with similar strategic goals to AUKUS and an even larger geographic scope is in the process of being established…

Last year, 17,600 troops from the Philippines took part in Balikatan, a record for an annual military exercise between the Americans and the Tagalogs.  According to Manila’s statement, the interaction between the US, Philippine and Australian Armed Forces will be even bigger in 2024. What’s more, this year’s joint military exercise will take place in the Philippines’ northern islands, which are just 150 kilometres (93 nautical miles) from Taiwan. Already this weekend, military officials from the three countries will travel to the uninhabited…