The United States and the Philippines have announced plans to build a new industrial hub in the Southeast Asian country, which will be an economic security zone and the first of its kind. It is a smart and necessary step to protect American supply chains and businesses, and it fits the president’s National Security Strategy. It also promises to shore up alliances in an increasingly important part of the world.

The 4,000-acre site will be within the Luzon Economic Corridor to “leverage the Philippines geographic centrality in the Indo-Pacific, its young and technically skilled workforce, and its deepening alliance with the United States”, the State Department said.