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The United States reached an agreement with the Philippines on Thursday to receive access to additional military bases in the Southeast Asian country, the latest move by Washington to encircle China and counter its growing influence in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The agreement, remarkable because it reinvigorates an alliance that was in danger of falling apart just a few years ago, follows a meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez Jr., and falls under the countries’ 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA): This allows the US military to build facilities at agreed-upon Philippine bases, refuel and maintain vessels, as well as rotate troops through the bases.

The two allies initially designated five Philippine bases for use under the EDCA in 2016. Thursday’s deal adds four more sites. Officials said the additional sites could be set on the northern island of Luzon – near Taiwan – and in the southwestern province of Palawan, which sits on the edge of the South China Sea.

They added that troop rotations allow the US military to respond to threats of rising tensions in the South China Sea or Taiwan – a self-governing island that China claims as its territory.

Analysts added that the new agreement also marks a strengthening of ties between the US and the Philippines – considered Washington’s oldest ally in Asia.

Such relations had strained under the Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte, who steered his country closer to China and threatened to scrap other military agreements with the US.

Incumbent Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – who took office last year – said he seeks to balance Manila’s ties with Washington, its security guarantor, and those with Beijing, its top economic partner.