Cooperation of Philippines with the USA and its closest Asia-Pacific region allies is rapidly growing.

And just as the international community barely got used to the March news about the number of bases in the Philippines which the USA has access to increasing to nine, as well as about the possibility of Japan and Australia fully joining the military cooperation with the Philippines, on May 31 the Japanese media reported that the defense ministers of Japan, the USA, Australia and the Philippines will hold four-party negotiations at the international forum on security, the Shangri-La Dialogue, scheduled for June 2-4 this year, stressing that the discussion will focus on the problems of regional security and the development of cooperation.

Already on June 1, the Philippine Coast Guard announced the first-ever trilateral exercise to be conducted by the United States, Japan and the Philippines off the coast of the Philippines. The Japanese and the US Coast Guards sent one ship each, and four ships from the Philippines will be involved in the exercise. It is stressed that this exercise, which will include, in particular, maneuvering, operative communication installation, and photographing within scenarios of suspected pirate vessels interception, should allegedly improve coordination between the coastguards of the three states.

These recent developments testify to, so to speak, the success of Washingtons policy, assisted by its allies, on reduction of the influence (or even elimination, in the best case for the United States) of one of the most important organizations for stability in the Asia-Pacific region ASEAN. Obviously the Philippines are no longer a neutral, independent state in the current configuration of its foreign military-political relations as stipulated in the ASEAN basic agreements. In fact the US, with the rise of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to power in Manila to replace the restive and unyielding Rodrigo Duterte, got and is making the most of the opportunity to restore the Philippines to the role of its closest ally in the region, the way it was d...