US and Philippines discuss more missile system deployments as tensions rise in South China Sea

MANILA (AP):

The United States is discussing the possible deployment of more missile launchers to the Philippines to strengthen deterrence against aggression in the disputed South China Sea and other Asian security hotspots, but no final decision has been reached by both sides, Manila’s ambassador to Washington said Thursday.

The US military delivered a mid-range missile system called the Typhon, a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, to the northern Philippines as part of joint combat exercises in April last year. That was followed by the transport by the US military of an anti-ship missile launcher in April this year to the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes, just a sea border away from Taiwan.

Beijing strongly protested the installation of the US missile systems, saying they were aimed at containing China’s rise and warning that these would threaten regional stability. China has asked the Philippines to withdraw the missile launchers from its territory, but officials led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had rejected the demand.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said without elaborating that the possible deployment by the US of more Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System or NMESIS missile launchers “was being discussed for consideration by both sides.” The anti-ship missile systems could be installed along Philippine coastal regions facing the South China Sea and outlying regions to beef up deterrence against aggression, he said.

“This is part of the strong US and Philippines defence partnership,” Romualdez told The Associated Press.

Romualdez spoke on the sidelines of a trade and investment conference in Manila, where he and Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro encouraged major US companies to invest in a wide array of industries – from energy and telecommunications to infrastructure and navy shipbuilding – in the Philippines, the oldest treaty ally of the US in Asia.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the resource-rich and busy waters, but confrontations have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years.

On Wednesday, the US briefly deployed two warships in what it called a “freedom of navigation” operation off the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea where two Chinese navy and coast guard ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine coast guard vessel. The high-seas accident sparked alarm among Asian and Western countries.

“Freedom of navigation is essential for the trillions of dollars worth of commerce that passes through these waters,” the US ambassador to the Philippines, MaryKay Carlson, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manila investment conference. “It’s about commerce. It’s about lives and livelihoods.”