Austin heads to Asia with $500M for the Philippines

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin heads to Asia today for what officials described as one of the most consequential visits to the region for “U.S. defense ties in the Indo-Pacific since the start of the [Biden] administration.” The trip features a meeting with counterparts from Japan and South Korea in Tokyo, and a stop in the Philippines, where Austin will announce $500 million in foreign military financing to help the island nation bolster its defenses.

The assistance is “a critical enabler of the Philippines’ defense modernization already underway,” and “an unprecedented provision of security assistance, which is an order of magnitude greater than what we have recently provided to the Philippines on an annual basis,” a senior defense official told reporters.

The Philippines has been the focus of increasing media attention and U.S. military focus following an incident in June in which members of the Chinese Coast Guard attacked Filipino Navy vessels. The attack included an ax as well as “blaring sirens to create chaos, disrupt communication, and divert the attention of AFP troops, exacerbating the hostile & dangerous situation,” the Filipino military said in a statement on X. It happened in the area of the Second Thomas Shoal, which legally is part of the Philippines’ economic zone, but which China claims as its own. 

Since then, China has placed a “monster” 541 foot-long coast guard ship nearby, though on Sunday Beijing reached a deal with the Philippines to avoid further clashes. The details of the deal are reportedly a matter of some disagreement.

The $500 million in assistance is part of what a second official described as the “first-ever security sector assistance roadmap, which provides a framework for efficiently investing this $500 million in foreign military financing as well as Philippine national funds investments. Initially, we'll focus those shared investments on maritime self defense and cybersecurity capabilities.”

In Japan, U.S. and Japanese officials will discuss how to implement the joint command and control agreement the United States and Japan agreed to in April. The agreement includes placing a Joint Operations Command Center in Japan in 2025.

“We've been continuing to discuss this issue closely with the government of Japan, and we are pleased with where those discussions are headed. And we will be poised to announce a historic upgrade to our alliance command and control with significant and positive implications for regional peace and stability. Japan has taken a major step with the creation of the … Joint Operations Command,” the first official said.