The Philippines is expanding its network of security partnerships alongside its long-standing treaty alliance with the United States to counter China's actions in the South China Sea

The complex and evolving relationship between the United States and China, encompassing diplomatic, military, economic, and technological dimensions, including tensions over Taiwan, competition in the Indo-Pacific, AI development, and broader questions of global power and deterrence.

The overlapping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea, principally between China and Southeast Asian states including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, encompassing disputed islands, reefs and shoals, and the naval, coastguard and diplomatic confrontations arising from them.