Why the U.S. and the Philippines are forging closer military ties.

Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story is coming up, but first, making headlines:

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday, U.S. officials said, prompting emergency alerts and evacuation warnings on Japan’s northernmost main island. A South Korean defense ministry official later told VOA that the missile likely used solid fuel and appears to be a new type of weapon the North has not launched before.

Myanmar's ruling military said on Wednesday it attacked a village gathering organized by the junta’s opponents. The military’s air strike killed at least 100 people, including women and children, on Tuesday, a resident told VOA.

A senior official from the South Korean president’s office said Tuesday that South Korea and the U.S. agreed that leaked U.S. intel documents, including parts purportedly of internal conversations between South Korean presidential officials, were partially fabricated. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington later this month.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Momen to Washington for bilateral talks Monday. According to the State Department, Bangladesh is the largest recipient of U.S. assistance in Asia, aid that helps to boost sustainable agriculture and food security in a nation where some 35 million live below the poverty line.

Taiwan’s pro-independence ruling Democratic Progressive Party nominated Vice President Lai Ching-te as its candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Current president, Tsai Ing-wen, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Philippine leaders at the State Department as the two countries began their largest joint military drills Tuesday, amid increased tensions with China over Taiwan and Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.

U.S. and Filipino soldiers launched Balikatan military drills in the Philippines as leaders from the two nations met in Washington for the first such talks in seven years.

“At today's meeting, we redoubled our commitment to modernizing the Philippine-U.S. alliance, recognizing that our partnership will need to play a stronger role in preserving an international-law-based international order.”

“I'm excited about the ability to increase interoperability, and I look forward to continuing our great work together.”

Those words are a far cry from the state of U.S.-Philippine relations just three years ago, when then-President Rodrigo Duterte openly disapproved of the military alliance.

“The U.S.-Philippine alliance is really having a once-in-a-generation moment right now where both sides have realized maybe for the first time in a couple decades that they really need each other.”

The Philippines is among the least developed of America’s military allies in the region, and it faces an acute threat from one of the world’s most powerful militaries: China.

“For more than a decade, three Philippine presidents now, Beijing has just refused to give the Philippines some breathing space in the South China Sea.”

In 2012, China pushed the Philippines out of Scarborough Shoal — a territory well within the Philippines exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea — and claimed it as Chinese territory.

Both sides have militarized islands in the South China Sea and are in constant conflict.

That’s the Chinese coast guard telling a Philippine coast guard plane last month to immediately leave what it called Chinese territory over the disputed Spratly Islands.

The U.S. and the Philippines have now agreed on U.S. access to four new bases in the Philippines, key locations near the contested South China Sea and Taiwan, another geopolitical flashpoint looming large in the region.

“Our goal is peace, security, stability, creating opportunity. It's not to engage in a new Cold War. It's not to contain China.”

China completed three days of military exercises around Taiwan on Monday, which included a drill that simulated precision strikes on the island. The Chinese Communist Party has vowed to control the democratic island by 2027, using force if necessary.

Carla Babb, VOA News, Washington.

Finally, Taiwanese are rushing to buy patches worn by their air force pilots.

The patches show an angry Formosan black bear punching Winnie-the-Pooh, an internet meme representing China’s President Xi Jinping.

Taiwan was formerly known internationally as Formosa.

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Thanks for watching VOA Asia Weekly. I’m Chris Casquejo. Until next week.