The Philippines and United States are set to review their mutual defense alliance, critically timed deliberations that will have major implications for regional security, including in the South China Sea.
Both allies face new and rising security risks from China’s militarization of the contested sea, moves that could soon tilt towards a balance of power-testing military confrontation for control of the waterway. Those perceived threats were accentuated by China’s unprecedented military drills this month around the sea’s contested Paracel and Spratly islands, which according to news reports included a live-fire missile test.
