MANILA (Reuters) - Washington and Manila have expanded talks
on military cooperation to include possible U.S. funding to build facilities
and the storage of U.S. humanitarian relief supplies, the Philippine envoy to
the United States said on Tuesday.
The wider scope of the talks for joint use of civilian and
military facilities signals rapidly warming security ties between the allies as
the Philippines looks to the
U.S. administration to help
counter a newly assertive China .
The Philippines
has ruled out granting permanent basing rights to Washington ,
Ambassador Jose Cuisia said, but it would give U.S. warplanes and warships wider
access to Philippine bases on a temporary and rotational basis, helping the
Asian nation improve its minimum defence capability.
The increasing rotational presence of U.S. forces in the country is covered by the
1998 Visiting Forces Agreement, but a new arrangement would be needed if Washington built facilities to support its temporary
deployment to the Philippines .
"We need to expand (the 1998 pact) further because we
may have to build some additional facilities," Cuisia told reporters in
the Philippine capital.
The two countries have been in talks since 2011 for
"joint use" of civilian and military facilities in the former U.S. colony.
http://news.yahoo.com/manila-washington-widen-talks-military-deal-082344483.html
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