MANILA: The United States and the Philippines announced an expansion of America’s military presence in the Southeast Asian country on Thursday, with US forces granted access to four more military camps, effectively giving Washington new ground to ramp up deterrence against China.

The agreement between the longtime allies was made public during the visit of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who has led efforts to strengthen America’s security alliances in Asia in the face of China’s increasing assertiveness.

The allies also said that substantial progress has been made in projects at five Philippine military bases. Thursday’s announcement comes as tensions between China and Taiwan have risen.

Austin thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whom he briefly met in Manila, for allowing the US military to broaden its presence in the Philippines. “I have always said that it seems to me that the future of the Philippines and for that matter the Asia-Pacific will always have to involve the US simply because those partnerships are so strong,” Marcos told Austin.

“We discussed concrete actions to address destabilizing activities in the waters,” Austin said. “This is part of our effort to modernize our alliance and these efforts are especially important as China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea.”