Source: Reuter.
Date: 23 Sept 91.
Story Type: News.
Original Language: English.
Dateline: Manila.
Byline: None.
Text: Abridged.
Brief Remark: Forwarded. Any external military threats within
several thousand miles? Anyway, this is, so far, a hearsay story.
ASIAN MILITARY CHIEFS WARN OF POWER VACUUM IF U.S. LEAVES
Military leaders in southeast Asia say
U.S. forces should stay in the Philippines for 10 more years to avoid
creating a power vacuum in the region, Philippine military chief General
Lisandro Abadia said on Monday.
Abadia was speaking to reporters after returning to Manila from
Bangkok where he had talks with Thai and Indonesian military chiefs.
The military commanders are concerned that a power vacuum may
develop because the Philippine Senate rejected a new military bases pact
with the United States.
"We talked about a possible power vacuum in the region," Abadia told
reporters.
Security experts meeting at a conference in Manila in June warned
that a security vacuum caused by a rapid pull-out of U.S. forces from
the Philippines could be filled by Japan or China.
Military commanders in Singapore and Malaysia also want U.S. forces
to stay in the Philippines.
"They favour the American presence in the region as a
counterbalancing force," Abadia said.
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