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(CNN) --
The Philippines will provide the United States with expanded access to its military bases, the two countries said Thursday, which will serve as a major strategic base for US forces on the southeastern edge of the South China Sea near Taiwan. .
The deal will give the US access to four more locations under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) dating from 2014, allowing US troops to rotate to a total of nine bases in the Philippines.
The United States has sought to expand its security options in the Indo-Pacific in recent months amid growing concerns about China's aggressive territorial posture across the region.
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Speaking during a visit to Manila on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said the US and the Philippines remain committed to strengthening each other's capabilities to resist armed attacks.
“That's just part of what we're doing to modernize our alliance.
And it is especially important as the PRC continues its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea,” Austin said, referring to China's increased presence in waters near the Philippines.
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Austin did not give the location of the bases to which the US military will gain new access.
Following the move, China warned of rising tensions in the region.
The fact that the Philippines allows US access to four defense sites on its territory has "increased tension in the region and jeopardizes regional peace and stability," a spokesman for the Philippine Foreign Ministry said Thursday. China, Mao Ning.
US Secretary of Defense LLloyd Austin with his Filipino counterpart Carlito Galvez Jr. on February 2, 2023 (Credit: Joeal Calupitan - Pool/Getty Images)
“Outside of its self-serving agenda, the American side has stood its ground in the cold war.
Countries in the region must remain vigilant about this and avoid being used by the United States,” Mao said.
Thursday's announcement follows a series of high-profile US military deals across the region, including plans to share defense technologies with India and to deploy new US Navy units to Japanese islands. .
The US Marine Corps also opened a new base last week on Guam, a strategically important US island located east of the Philippines.
The location, known as Camp Blaz, is the first new Navy base in 70 years and is expected to one day house 5,000 Marines.
Moves to counter China
Greater access to military bases in the Philippines would potentially put the US military within 200 miles of Taiwan — the democratically governed island of 24 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its territory even though it never did. has controlled--
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has refused to rule out the use of military force to bring Taiwan under Beijing's control, but the Biden administration was adamant in its support for the island under the Foreign Relations Act. Taiwan, under which Washington agrees to provide the island with the means to defend itself without committing US troops.
In November, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines to discuss expanding base access with newly elected President Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos Jr. Some experts said her visit sent a clear message to Beijing that the Philippines was moving closer to the US, reversing the direction of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte.
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Washington and Manila are linked by a mutual defense treaty signed in 1951 that is still in force, making it the region's oldest bilateral treaty alliance for the United States.
In addition to the expansion of the EDCA, the US is helping the Philippines modernize its military and has included it as a pilot country in a maritime dominance awareness initiative.
The two countries also recently agreed to hold more than 500 activities together throughout the year.
Earlier this month, the Philippines announced that 16,000 Filipino and US soldiers would take part in the annual Balikatan exercise, which will take place from April 24-27.
That military exercise will include "live fire to test the newly acquired weapons system from the United States and the Philippines," said an announcement by the Philippine state news agency.
The Philippines was once a US territory.
Formal US ties to the Philippines date back to 1898, when, as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War, Madrid ceded control of its colony in the Philippines to the US.
The Philippines remained a US territory until July 4, 1946, when Washington granted it independence, but the US military presence remained in the archipelago nation.
The country used to be home to two of the US military's largest overseas installations — Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Station — which supported the US in Vietnam in the decade 1960's and early 1970's.
Both bases were transferred to Philippine control in the 1990s, after a 1947 military bases agreement between Washington and Manila expired.
CNN's Oren LIebermann contributed to this report.
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