US militarizing region with mid-range missile system deployment in Philippines: experts

With a US general again hyping the significance of the US Army's mid-range missile deployment in the Philippines, experts said on Tuesday that the US' move is militarizing the region and harming the interests of all countries in vicinity.

The US Army's recent deployment of a mid-range missile system to the northern Philippines was "incredibly important and allowed American and Filipino forces to jointly train for the potential usage of such heavy weaponry in Asian archipelago conditions," US Major General Marcus Evans, Commanding General of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, said on Monday, the AP reported.

The US Army deployed the Typhon missile system to the northern Philippines as part of joint combat exercises in April with Philippine troops, the AP reported. It is a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile.

The Typhon missile system was supposed to be flown out of the Philippines last month, but the two countries agreed to keep the missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely, according to the report.

The Typhon missile system would be considered a banned weapon had the US not withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, as the deployment of such mid-range missiles on other countries' doorsteps would inevitably compress the reaction time of air defense and pose significant threat, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The US deploying mid-range missiles could lead to arms races, tensions, and militarization of the region, which serve the interests of no country in the region, including the Philippines itself, the expert said.

Some Filipino experts have called for the withdrawal of the Typhon, as Anna Malindog-Uy, vice president of the Manila-based think tank Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, said that the US deployment suggests an offensive strategy rather than mere defense, and the risks of an arms race, diplomatic rifts and military escalation are real and evident, the Xinhua News Agency previously reported.

Wilson Lee Flores, a columnist for The Philippine Star, said in the Xinhua report that the deployment is unfortunate and worrisome because it might trigger an unhealthy arms race throughout Asia and increase geopolitics tensions among major countries and regional countries.