SINCE its inception in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has maintained its neutrality toward big powers, the opposite of the United States-led Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, or Seato alliance, the region's now-defunct equivalent of the West's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Now, recent US strategy reports affirm the wisdom of Asean neutrality — and the great danger of our deviation from this foundational policy by giving America access to nine bases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and, of late, opening our territory to US missile batteries targeting the People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's military.

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