MANILA – The Philippines and South Korea elevated ties to a strategic partnership, Manila’s latest move to build a bulwark and stockpile more arms against China’s rising threat in the South China Sea.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said after meeting counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr that the two sides had “opened a new chapter” and that his country would “actively take part” in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) modernization drive.
Over the next decade, the Philippines is scheduled to invest up to US$35 billion under its Horizon 3 military modernization program, with a singular focus on naval and aerial acquisitions.
Over the past decade, South Korea has been a top supplier of modern military equipment, including fighter jets and warships.
Unlike its liberal predecessor under President Moon Jae-in – who primarily focused on the Korean Peninsula conflict and maintaining stable ties with Beijing – the conservative Yoon administration has more openly welcomed closer defense ties with Washington and like-minded powers in the region.
Cognizant of criticism of his perceived as pro-US foreign policy, especially by pro-China elements such as the powerful Duterte clan, the Marcos Jr administration has adamantly pursued its own version of a “multi-aligned” foreign policy.
To dispel accusations of overreliance on America, the Philippines has been proactively upgrading defense ties with a host of quasi-non-aligned nations, including India, New Zealand, and, most crucially, South Korea.
Although Seoul has a treaty alliance with America, the Northeast Asian nation has historically adopted more balanced foreign relations, including cultivating warm ties with Beijing and, at times, even with Tehran and Moscow in order to keep Pyongyang at bay.
Accordingly, South Korea has often shunned any direct criticism of China and other revisionist powers. In fact, Seoul has rarely criticized Beijing over the South China Sea disputes while it has adopted strategic ambiguity on any potential intervention in a Taiwan crisis.
South Korea’s adroit foreign policy has gone hand-in-hand with the development of a world-class defense industry. As a result, Seoul has become a “global pivot state”, one that has become more assertive under the Yoon administration.
While in Manila, Yoon underscored shared concerns over North Korea, the South China Sea disputes, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and threats posed by revisionist powers to a rules-based international order.
In the past decade, South Korea has provided FA-50 fighter jets, frigates, and corvettes to the Philippines. As Seoul aims to become the world’s fourth largest arms exporter by 2027, it’s keen to seal major new defense deals with rising powers with big defense budgets the Philippines.
Shortly after hosting Yoon, Marcos Jr signed a new law, known as the Self-Reliant Defense Posture Program, to boost the Philippines’ domestic arms industry.
The law’s aim is to enhance indigenous and joint production of modern weapons and revitalize the country’s long-dormant defense industry in light of rising geopolitical uncertainy in the region.
“Cyber security breaches, chemical attacks, radiological threats — these are more than hypothetical risks, but pressing realities. With this, we are broadening our perspective on defense. We are not just looking at tanks and rifles. We are building capacities that address these unconventional dangers head-on,” Marcos said.
“This means developing systems and strategies that are reactive and predictive, allowing us to stay a step ahead of those who wish harm to the Philippines,” he added.
Nevertheless, the Philippines’ ace card remains its deepening defense ties with the US. Aside from ever-larger joint military exercises, Washington has also allocated a bipartisan, multi-billion-dollar defense aid package to its Southeast Asian mutual defense treaty ally.
The US has also offered direct assistance, including escorting Philippine resupply missions to disputed land features such as the Second Thomas Shoal, the site of repeated clashes between Filipino and Chinese maritime forces over the past year.
Perhaps most crucial is the Philippines’ decision to grant the US Pentagon expanded rotational access to military facilities in northern regions of the country facing Taiwan.
Just as crucial is the recent decision to host advanced platforms such as America’s Typhon missile system, which could target vital Chinese military bases in the event of any contingency in the region. The Typhon is capable of launching SM-6 missiles and Tomahawks with a range exceeding 1,600 kilometers (994 miles).
The missile system was deployed to the Philippines for recent joint “Salaknib” military exercises with US forces but has been left in place since.
Despite China’s strong warning and criticism, the Marcos Jr administration believes that the American weapons system could serve as a deterrent against any drastic Chinese military action amid intensifying disputes in the South China Sea and nearby Taiwan Strait.
In the future, the Philippines is expected to seek the direct acquisition of state-of-the-art American missile and other weapons systems under its newly announced Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC) strategy. The aim would be to raise the cost of any Chinese kinetic action in the two sides South China China disputes and any potential assault on neighboring Taiwan.
“Relying on US’ deterrence to gain an upper hand over China in the South China Sea issue is a short-sighted and narrow-minded move by the Philippines,” Dai Fan, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at Jinan University in South China’s Guangdong Province, told the Chinese Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper.
Although some Chinese experts have tried to play down the Typhon missile system’s deployment, sharp statements made by top Chinese officials underscore Beijing’s growing concerns over deepening Philippine-US military cooperation.
Follow Richard Javad Heydarian on X at @Richeydarian
If only Xi had followed Deng’s path of gradually growing and not threatening anyone.