The U.S. military will get access to more bases in the Philippines that are close to Taiwan.
Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story is coming up, but first, making headlines.
Hundreds of protesters rallied Wednesday against Myanmar's junta in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Demonstrators with red bandanas tied around their heads waved placards outside the walls of the Myanmar Embassy as they marked two years since the military ousted the democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar's ruling junta extended the country's state of emergency by another six months, the acting president said on Wednesday. General Min Aung Hlaing also said multi-party elections must be held "as the people desire" but did not provide a timeline. Elections cannot be held during a state of emergency. Critics say any elections are likely to be a sham to allow the military to retain power.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday applauded Japan's plan to double its defense spending, saying it reflected the country's resolve for greater security involvement in a changing world. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government approved a new security strategy last year that includes an increase in defense spending to 2% of GDP, or 73 billion U.S. dollars, by 2027.
The United States embassy in the Solomon Islands is now open, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, as Washington seeks to boost diplomatic relations in the Pacific as a counter to China. The Solomon Islands entered a security pact with China last year.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the United States and South Korea will increase the pace and scope of joint military exercises, and expand intelligence sharing, in response to repeated and more frequent missile tests by North Korea. Austin met with his South Korean counterpart Tuesday.
The U.S. is set to gain access to 4 more Philippine military bases.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Filipino counterpart Carlito Galvez made the announcement Thursday in Manila.
They did not specify the locations, but in November, the Philippines said the U.S. had sought access to military camps mostly located in the northern Philippine region of Luzon.
The U.S. left its own bases in the Philippines in 1992, after the leases weren’t renewed by the Philippines government.
The northernmost tip of Luzon sits about 320 kilometers south of Taiwan, putting it within range of shore-based missiles. A U.S. presence on Luzon could deter China from invading Taiwan.
The Philippines and neighboring countries have also been dealing with increasing Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
An expert in Philippines national security explains why expanding the current agreement with the U.S. makes sense for the Philippines.
“The asymmetry between the Philippines and the other Southeast Asian claimants vis-à-vis China is very clear. So, without an external force to balance, to tip the balance of, you know, the disparity would really make the Philippines and other countries in the region concerned and suspicious about China's activities in the South China Sea and also the Taiwan Strait.”
Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explains why this latest move fits into Washington’s overall Indo-Pacific strategy.
“The greatest benefit the U.S. can have is a robust alliance network. And the Philippines being the oldest ally in the region is the one that, in a sense, has been left behind so modernizing that alliance, networking it more with the Japanese and the Australian alliances, fits perfectly into the U.S. overall strategy of leaning more heavily on its allies and making those alliances more equal.”
Currently, American forces have been granted access to five Philippine military camps, where they could rotate indefinitely under a 2014 defense pact called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
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Finally, China’s gambling hub, Macau, saw revenues jump almost 83% year-on-year in January, hitting around $1.4 billion U.S. dollars.
That's according to Chinese government data released on Wednesday.
The city scrapped all inbound COVID testing requirements before the Lunar New Year and saw nearly half a million visitors streaming into its casinos over the holiday period.
That's a stark contrast to the lack of gamblers since 2020, when Macau closely followed the Beijing’s zero-COVID strategy.
But while January’s numbers are encouraging signs of recovery, revenue was still less than half of pre-COVID levels at the same time in 2019.
Macau, a special administrative region like Hong Kong, is the only place in China where gambling in casinos is legal.
Thanks for watching VOA Asia Weekly. I’m Chris Casquejo. Until next week.
