Germany blurs defence lines with bet on Philippines’ old US base

The runway at Clark International Airport was built to launch American air power across Asia. Now, it is being repurposed to project German industrial ambition.

Analysts say the multimillion-dollar deal to develop the former US military base in the Philippines illustrates how economic investment has become the new language of strategic power.

The deal, struck last week during German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s milestone visit to Manila – the first by a German head of state since 1963 – centres on a 157,000-square-metre (39-acre) aviation facility at the former US air base.

It envisages developing the site into a state-of-the-art maintenance, repair and overhaul hub capable of servicing nine widebody aircraft at the same time.

When operations begin in 2028, the facility – to be developed by Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP), an existing joint venture between Germany’s Lufthansa Technik and the Philippines’ MacroAsia Corporation – is projected to employ 1,200 highly skilled Filipinos.

It is, by any measure, a serious industrial investment. But seen through the lens of intensifying global power dynamics, analysts say it is considerably more than that.