{"id":4823,"date":"2024-10-15T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/philippines-seeks-to-deepen-us-ties-amid-rising-tensions-with-china\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T17:14:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:14:42","slug":"philippines-seeks-to-deepen-us-ties-amid-rising-tensions-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/philippines-seeks-to-deepen-us-ties-amid-rising-tensions-with-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines seeks to deepen US ties amid rising tensions with China"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Philippines is keen to raise relations with the US to \u201ca whole new level,\u201d says the Director-General of the country\u2019s Space Agency, Dr Joel Marciano.\u00a0 His remarks come in the wake of joint naval exercises, dubbed \u201cSama Sama,\u201d conducted in the waters off the Philippine island of Luzon with the United States and four other allies.\u00a0Dr Marciano said that a milestone in relations with the US was reached in May this year to collaborate at government level on space and to expand cooperation in using space for maritime domain awareness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019re talking on a government level about space,\u201d he told National Security News in an interview at the Meridian Space Diplomacy forum in Washington. \u201cSo, this is truly a milestone. For the Philippine Space Agency,\u00a0\u00a0which is barely five years old, it is an opportunity to expand Philippines-US relations into this exciting new frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Philippines keen to raise US relations to \u201ca whole new level,\u201d\" width=\"801\" height=\"451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x6L4Ma5VI38?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The increased cooperation between the US and the Philippines, including in the field of space, comes as Chinese maritime forces continue to assert territorial claims in the South China Sea. In recent months, Chinese boats have been accused of ramming Philippine ships and attacking Filipino sailors with water cannons and, in one scenario, machetes. The Philippines has described the nine days of training by the US, Japan, France, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom,\u201d as drills aimed at strengthening a \u201cdeterring effect\u201d but said it was not aimed at any single country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">EXERCISE SAMASAMA 2024 | The Vice Commander of the Philippine Navy, Rear Adm. Jose Ma Ambrosio Ezpeleta PN, emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in addressing shared challenges during the opening ceremony of Exercise SAMASAMA. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QgeoqFRYHT\">pic.twitter.com\/QgeoqFRYHT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philippine Navy (@Philippine_Navy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Philippine_Navy\/status\/1843945791129555292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Dr Marciano said that the Philippines is also considering joining the Artemis Accords, a set of principles initiated by NASA to promote international cooperation in space. He said his country appreciates the principles of the Accords in terms of open science and transparency, noting, \u201cit is a good framework for cooperation in space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is currently being considered by the Philippines, but it is going through a process of internal consultations. We have to gather different stakeholders in the country and get them into the same room and talk to them about the Accords and how it aligns with our aspirations for responsible and sustainable spacefaring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Dr Marciano, the Philippines\u2019 space strategy focuses on national security and development, hazard management, climate studies, space research, industrial capacity building, and international cooperation. \u201cThe view from space is essential,\u201d he said. \u201cBuilding capabilities in that domain would benefit decision-making and policymaking in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that space is a frontier becoming well within reach, and the inspirational aspect of space for the young Filipino population\u2014whose median age is 25\u2014should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n<p>The country is focusing on small satellites in cooperation with Japanese universities. Young Filipino students are sent to Japanese universities to build earth observation satellites. \u201cWe have taken what we learned from the Japanese universities and cascaded that into the universities in the Philippines. Now, they\u2019re building these small satellites out of their local laboratories and are involved in dialogues with local companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Marciano emphasised the value of international partnerships, advocating that emerging space nations should build on existing advancements and engage in diplomacy and knowledge exchange. The Philippines, he said, also wants to identify programmes of common interest with private space companies in the US, which are generating many exciting developments.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines is keen to raise relations with the US to \u201ca whole new level,\u201d says the Director-General of the country\u2019s Space Agency, Dr Joel Marciano.\u00a0 His remarks come in the wake of joint naval exercises, dubbed \u201cSama Sama,\u201d conducted in the waters off the Philippine island of Luzon with the United States and four<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}