Observers wary of US influence in S.Korea-Philippines defense cooperation boost

The Philippines and South Korea on Monday upgraded their ties to a strategic partnership and agreed to boost defense cooperation. While Western media hyped the move's link to the Philippines' ongoing tensions with China in the South China Sea, Chinese experts urged the two countries not to fall into the US scheme of containing China.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr agreed on Monday to boost defense cooperation as their countries elevated ties to a strategic partnership, Reuters reported on Monday.

In a joint press conference with Marcos, Yoon said his country would actively take part in the latest phase of the Philippines' multi-billion-dollar effort to modernize its military security at a time of rising tensions with China in the South China Sea, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that South Korea has sold FA-50 fighter jets, corvettes, and frigates to the Philippines.

Chen Xiangmiao, director of the World Navy Research Center at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Monday that South Korea has been a key arms supplier of the Philippines, and its position on the South China Sea issue is becoming more obvious after the South China Sea issue was included in the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit last year.

South Korea's defense cooperation with the Philippines caters to the US strategy of containing China in the South China Sea, Chen said.

South Korea is not a South China Sea country, and it should not perceive China as a rival. Such a move will only cast a shadow on China-South Korean ties, and will bring further instabilities to the region, observers said.

Even if the Philippines receives more weapons and equipment from South Korea, Japan and the US, Manila cannot change China's position on its islands and reefs in the South China Sea, or the Chinese military's determination and capabilities in defending them, said Chinese military experts reached by the Global Times.