The United States is establishing a fuel depot in the southern Philippines to support joint humanitarian and maritime security missions for its ally. This move represents a deepening of the US-Philippine alliance and builds a network of refuelling hubs in the Western Pacific.

The United States is planning a fuel depot in southern Philippines to support humanitarian and maritime security missions for its long-time ally in Asia, as part of a growing network of forward-based refuelling hubs in the Western Pacific. Located far from the flashpoint reefs at the centre of Manila’s maritime dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea, the depot marks what one observer called a “more mature and more serious stage” in the US-Philippine alliance: a shift from base access and...