Study queries use of bases

Press, 11 April 1977, Page 1

Study queries use of bases

NZPA-Reuter Washington

American military bases in the Philippines are of questionable value unless the United States Administration intends to maintain a “major military capability” in South-East Asia, a new Senate report says. The report, by a subgroup of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. says that the Administration must decide if. in a post-Vietnam era, the bases are worth the more than SIOOOM the Philippine Government wants United States taxpayers to pay. The Philippines has long been the key United

States defence outpost in the - Pacific, but the two governments have been renegotiating base agreements since last year because the conditions that made the bases vital have changed. Important installations are Clark air force base, which has Hercules transport and Phantom fighter squadrons and top-secret installations, and Subic naval base, a big supply and communications centre that also does 60 per cent of repairs to the United States Seventh Fleet. “The value of Clark air base in the future ... is questionable unless the United States intends to

maintain a capability to mount and support major military operations on the South-East Asian mainland,” the report says. “The value of Clark depends on the outcome of a general reassessment of United States foreignpolicy objectives and military capabilities in East and South-East Asia.” Negotiations over the bases collapsed last December. when the Philippines reiected an offer of SIOOOM. “The Philippine Government said it wanted one billion in military aid and sales credits alone, with economic assistance over and above that level.” the report says.

“In any event, the bases issue remains an issue before the Carter Administration — in particular, what bases and or functions should the United States attempt to retain for what purposes at what prices?" the report says. It says that "informed analysts” believe that the United States bases in Guam could perform many of the functions of Clark. But those analysts feel that Subic and the adjacent Cubi naval air station would remain "advantageous to the Seventh Fleet, unless radical changes are contemplated in its deployment.”