THEO VAN GOGH TODAYS Top of the Agenda: US IN JOINT VENTURE WITH BLOODY DICTATOR MARCOS! TO PREPARE FOR WORLD WAR III AND US SUPREMACY

U.S., Philippines Kick Off Largest Joint Military Exercises in Decades
The drills that opened today (FT) demonstrate Manila’s increased military cooperation with Washington under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office last year. In total, about 17,600 personnel will participate in these exercises, which will run until April 28, compared to nine thousand people (Nikkei) last year. In addition, Marcos Jr. has granted U.S. forces greater access to Philippine military bases facing Taiwan and disputed areas of the South China Sea.

The drills coincidentally follow three days of nearby military exercises (AP) from China, which has faced increased tensions with the United States and the Philippines over some of its territorial claims. Meanwhile, the foreign policy and defense chiefs of the United States and the Philippines are meeting in Washington today for the first time in seven years.

Analysis
“Manila is aware that if an armed conflict between Beijing and Taipei erupts and intensifies over the Taiwan Strait, there is little chance the country will escape the adverse consequences in terms of massive refugee flows, the rapid return of Filipino overseas workers based in Taiwan, and the actual spread of the conflict,” De La Salle University’s Renato Cruz De Castro writes for the Brookings Institution.

“Nowhere has China’s pursuit of territorial advantage more clearly undermined its efforts to weaken U.S. alliances than in the South China Sea,” the National Defense University’s Andrew D. Taffer and the Center for Naval Analyses’ David Wallsh write for Foreign Affairs.