Philippine president's visit to US highlights new Asia strategy

Philippine President Benigno Aquino arrived in the United States on Wednesday for a visit that will highlight the Southeast Asian archipelago's growing importance in US strategic thinking, as the White House "pivots" to Asia.

Aquino, well regarded by the US government, not least for his battles against corruption, is being accorded a White House meeting on Friday with President Barack Obama.

That meeting comes as Washington has begun helping Manila beef up its modest military capacities.

The United States, colonial ruler of the Philippines from 1898-1946 and a treaty ally with Manila since 1951, has embraced the Philippines as part of a policy that makes the Asia-Pacific region the center of US security and economic strategy.

"The meeting between President Aquino and President Obama will lay the groundwork for the future of the strategic partnership between the Philippines and the United States," said Jose Cuisia, the Philippine ambassador in Washington.

Aquino will also meet senior US lawmakers for "discussions on our bilateral economic and defense cooperation, the shift in the focus of the United States toward the Asia-Pacific and ways to revitalize our alliance", the envoy said in a statement.

A US official said Washington saw Aquino as a leader who is "trying to do the right thing" to tackle the corruption, cronyism and red tape that have held back the economy of his nation of 93 million people.

But the US is moving cautiously in solidifying defense ties with Manila. The Philippines evicted the US military from Naval Station Subic Bay in 1992, and nationalist sentiment remains high.

Even as it fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US kept more than 70,000 troops in a network of military bases in Japan and South Korea that date back to the 1950s.

No new US bases

The Obama policy has focused on Southeast Asia and crafting flexible arrangements with other allies in Asia, Australia and the Philippines, and ship visits to Singapore and Vietnam.

No new US bases are envisioned under this scheme, although 2,500 US troops will rotate through and train in Darwin, Australia. Any new arrangements with the Philippines would be smaller than the Australian program, US officials say.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last weekend the Pentagon will reposition its naval fleet so 60 percent of its battleships are in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the decade, up from about 50 percent now.

In upgrading its military capability, Manila has been looking to Washington for ships, aircraft and surveillance and equipment to build a credible defense posture.

After high-level bilateral security and diplomatic talks in late April, the Obama administration pledged to increase its annual foreign military sales program to the Philippines to $30 million, about three times the level of the 2011 program.

Reuters