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Austin arrived in the Philippines from South Korea,where he said the US would increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula to bolster joint training with South Korean forces in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.

North Korea responded to that announcement by saying on Thursday it was prepared to counter the US military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force” and that the additional exercises with South Korea were pushing tensions to an “extreme red line”.

United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin walks past military guards during arrival honours at the Department of National Defence in Camp Aguinaldo.Credit:Getty

In the Philippines,Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia and a key front in the US battle against terrorism,Austin visited southern Zamboanga city and met Filipino generals and a small contingent of US counter-terrorism forces based in a local military camp,regional Philippine military commander Lieutenant General Roy Galido said. The more than 100 American military personnel have provided intelligence and combat advice for years to Filipino troops battling a decades-long Muslim insurgency,which has considerably eased but remains a key threat.

More recently,US forces and Filipino troops have intensified and broadened joint training focusing on combat readiness and disaster response on the nation’s western coast,which faces the South China Sea,and in its northern Luzon region across the sea from the Taiwan Strait.

American forces were granted access to five Philippine military camps,where they could rotate indefinitely under the 2014 EDCA defence pact.

In October,the US sought access for a larger number of its forces and weapons in an additional five military camps,mostly in the north. That request would be high on the agenda in Austin’s meetings,according to Philippine officials.

“The visit of Secretary Austin definitely,obviously will have to do with many of the ongoing discussions on the EDCA sites,” Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez said at a news briefing.

Austin was scheduled to hold talks with his Philippine counterpart,Carlito Galvez jnr,and National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano,Romualdez said. Austin will separately call on President Ferdinand Marcos jnr,who took office in June and has since taken steps to boost relations with Washington.

The US defence chief is the latest senior official to visit the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris in November in a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’s predecessor,Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte had nurtured cosy ties with China and Russia and at one point threatened to sever ties with Washington,kick visiting American forces out and abrogate a major defence pact.

Demonstrators hold banners as they protest against Lloyd Austin’s visit.Credit:AP

Romualdez said the Philippines needed to cooperate with Washington to deter any escalation of tensions between China and self-ruled Taiwan – not only because of the treaty alliance but to help prevent a major conflict.

“We’re in a catch-22 situation. If China makes a move on Taiwan militarily,we’ll be affected – and all ASEAN region,but mostly us,Japan and South Korea,” Romualdez said,referring to the Association of South-east Asian Nations,the 10-nation regional bloc that includes the Philippines.

The Philippines and ASEAN members Brunei,Malaysia and Vietnam,along with Taiwan,are locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The US has been regarded as a crucial counterweight to China in the region and has pledged to come to the defence of the Philippines if Filipino forces,ships or aircraft come under attack in the contested waters.

The Philippines used to host two of the largest US Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension,but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.

The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops and their involvement in local combat.

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