The US has confirmed that it has transferred large amounts of fuel from a military base in Hawaii to storage facilities across Southeast Asia. The announcement came after a senator in the Philippines raised concerns that Washington is pre-positioning military supplies for a potential conflict with China over Taiwan.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years over the self-governing island. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan while the US, despite officially recognizing Beijing’s ‘One-China’ policy, has continued to support the Taiwanese government and has vowed to protect the island in the event of a military conflict with Beijing.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Manila, Kanishka Gangopadhyay, confirmed that the US had delivered a fuel shipment from one of its naval bases in Hawaii to a commercial storage facility in Subic Bay – a former US military base.
He added that the delivery was “one of multiple shipments of safe, clean fuel” but did not give any details about the actual size of the shipment. Gangopadhyay stressed, however, that the shipment was conducted in full cooperation with the relevant Philippines authorities.
However, Philippines senator Imee Marcos, who serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has insisted that the fuel transfer was done in “inexplicable silence” by both the Philippines and US governments, and decried the shipment of what she said was 39 million gallons of fuel.
The senator, who is also the sister of the country’s president, Bongbong Marcos, stressed that the Filipino people had the right to know about such shipments and that making secretive moves only heightens fears of a possible US-China conflict.
She also noted that Subic was not a site covered under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the US, which gives Washington access to the country’s military bases, and questioned where the millions of gallons of fuel are expected to be stored.
The movement of US fuel comes ahead of this weekend’s presidential election in Taiwan. Several candidates have already expressed a desire to move towards Taiwanese independence, while Beijing has warned that “Taiwan independence means war.”
Beijing has repeatedly expressed its intention to seek peaceful reunification with the island. President Xi Jinping said during his New Year address that Taiwan would “surely be reunified” with the Chinese mainland. At the same time, Xi has also stressed that Beijing would be willing to resort to military action if the island decided to seek formal independence.