Philippines Sees No Pullout of US Military Assets Amid Iran War
US marines prepare during a US-Philippines joint military exercise at a naval training base in San Antonio town, Zambales province, north of Manila.
Photographer: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images
The Philippine military said US defense assets have stayed put in the Southeast Asian nation amid concerns that America may be shifting more firepower to the Middle East as the Iran war shows no signs of abating.
“There are no indications of the US pulling military assets from the Philippines,” Navy spokesperson Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a text message to reporters on Friday. He added the situation in South Korea — where the US reportedly decided to relocate air defense assets to the Middle East — “is a separate theater arrangement and does not apply here.”