Philippines Says Near Military Cooperation Deal With U.S.

From the Wall Street Journal (Mar 10): Philippines Says Near Military Cooperation Deal With U.S.

Two Sides Have Reached Consensus on Many Provisions, Philippine Defense Department Says

The U.S. and the Philippines are aiming to add the finishing touches to an agreement on the rotational presence of U.S. forces in the Asian country at planned talks in Manila later this month.

The two sides made "significant progress" during a sixth round of talks held in Washington last week, the Philippine Department of Defense spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said March 9.

There was now "consensus on many provisions" of the proposed Framework Agreement for Enhanced Defense Cooperation, Mr. Galvez said, ahead of the seventh round of discussions scheduled for late March.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment, but a U.S. official said the talks "went well" and are on track for an agreement to be in place for Mr. Obama's visit to the Philippines.

Negotiations on increasing the U.S. military presence in the Philippines began last August, but became bogged down over the issue of jurisdiction, with the Philippine side reluctant to give U.S. forces exclusive control over any new facilities. The Philippine constitution bans any kind of permanent foreign military presence.

Progress was further delayed by disagreements within the Philippine negotiating panel. These problems led to the firing of one the team's four members in January, and to the subsequent appointment of two new members.

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit the Philippines in April as part of a regional tour, and both Manila and Washington are focused on completing the agreement before his arrival.

Mr. Galvez said the Philippines had now furnished the U.S. with a "full draft text" of the agreement, which "comprehensively articulates the Philippines' positions," especially in relation to its constitutional red lines.

The U.S. ambassador to Manila, Philip S. Goldberg, told reporters in Manila last month that the deal would lead to a rotational U.S. military presence at several locations in the Philippines.

The U.S. and the Philippines also held their fourth Bilateral Strategic Dialogue alongside the talks on U.S. force rotations last week, as they seek to strengthen their alliance based on the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

Improving joint disaster-relief operations has become a priority in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the central Philippines in November.

Tensions in the South China Sea—where China has overlapping territorial claims with several countries, including the Philippines—have also convinced leaders in Manila that they need to work more closely with Washington on security issues.

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