US to deploy Coast Guard cutters to Philippines and Singapore — SCMP
The United States will send six fast-response Coast Guard cutters this month, which had been based in the Middle East for more than 20 years, to the Philippines and Singapore. Washington also plans to transfer two new Coast Guard vessels to the Philippines for search-and-rescue operations and to enhance maritime domain awareness, the South China Morning Post reports.
Cooperation with the Philippines
The decision was announced after a visit to Manila by US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby. According to him, the United States will rotationally deploy four fast-response cutters to work jointly with Philippine counterparts in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Chen Xiangmiao, a researcher at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, called the involvement of the Coast Guard a forced choice for Washington. In his view, US naval resources are heavily engaged in the Middle East, while using lighter and cheaper cutters could reduce costs compared with deploying warships.
Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at Brown University, also stated that the US Navy, particularly its surface forces, is currently overstretched. According to Chen’s assessment, for Southeast Asian countries, cooperation with the Coast Guard is politically less sensitive than a more active deployment of US warships. Formally, the US Coast Guard is one of the six branches of the US armed forces; however, other states largely perceive it as a law enforcement body and maritime security service.
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Risks around Taiwan
Goldstein believes that Washington is using an approach similar to China’s: involving the Coast Guard to demonstrate a presence without direct military escalation. In recent years, China has regularly used such vessels to project power in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, seeking to avoid a military response.
At the same time, the expert warned that Beijing may react more sharply to US cooperation with Taiwan’s maritime forces. In July, the American Institute in Taiwan published an undated photograph of a US Coast Guard cutter alongside a Taiwanese vessel. Several weeks later, the Coast Guard Administration in Taipei reported that the United States was training its personnel in maritime control and law enforcement under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2021.
Over the past four years, Beijing has increased the number of so-called “routine patrols” around Taiwan and expanded operations east of the island. Goldstein also noted that greater involvement of the US Coast Guard in the western Pacific could affect the performance of its core missions to protect the US coastline.
