President Joe Biden told Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Monday that the U.S. commitment to the defence of its ally was “ironclad,” including in the South China Sea where Manila is under pressure from China.
Marcos, on the first White House visit by a Philippines leader in 10 years, stressed the importance of the United States as his country’s sole treaty ally in a region with “arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.”
U.S. officials said the leaders would agree new guidelines for stronger military cooperation, as well as stepped up economic cooperation, underscoring a dramatic turnaround in U.S.-Philippine relations over the past year.
“The United States remains ironclad in our commitment to the defence of the Philippines, including the South China Sea,” Biden told Marcos in the Oval Office, reaffirming a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty that calls for the United States to act in the event of an armed attack on the Philippine military.
U.S. official said the new guidelines focused on military coordination across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, while the U.S. administration will also transfer three C-130 aircraft and look to send additional patrol vessels to the Philippines.
“It is only natural for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China, Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific region,” Marcos said.
Under Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ predecessor, U.S. relations soured as he turned the Philippines sharply away from its former colonial ruler and built closer ties with China.
The summit is the centerpiece of a four-day U.S. visit by Marcos that started on Sunday.
Biden has invested in courting Marcos, who still faces a U.S. court judgment connected with $2 billion of plundered wealth under his father’s rule.
Washington helped Marcos’ father flee into exile in Hawaii during a 1986 “people power” uprising and as head of state his son is immune from U.S. prosecution.
Biden noted to Marcos that “it’s been a while since you’ve been here,” before adding that Marcos Jr. had accompanied his father to the United States when he met former President Ronald Reagan.
Marcos became president last year and has sought warm relations with both the United States and China, who are vying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Washington sees the Philippines as key to any effort to counter an invasion of Taiwan by China, which claims the island as its own territory. Manila recently agreed to allow the United States access to four more of its military bases under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, but the two sides have not said what U.S. assets will be stationed at those.
Experts say Washington considers the Philippines a potential location for rockets, missiles and artillery systems to counter a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan.
However, Marcos told reporters on his plane China had agreed to discuss fishing rights in the South China Sea and also that he would not allow the Philippines to become a “staging post” for military action.
Before departure for Washington on Sunday, Marcos said he would reaffirm Manila’s commitment “to fostering our long-standing alliance as an instrument of peace and as catalyst of development in the Asia-Pacific region.”
TOUGHER STANCE
With many Filipinos frustrated by China’s actions in the South China Sea, including the harassing of Philippine ships and fishermen in parts of the sea that both countries claim, popular support has grown for a tougher stance toward Beijing.
Wariness about China has only increased recently.
A reported comment last month by Beijing’s ambassador to Manila that the Philippines should not support Taiwan’s independence “if you care about the 150,000 overseas foreign workers” of Filipino origin who live there was viewed as a “veiled threat,” a U.S. official said.
Biden was the first official to reach out to Marcos after his election and has made strengthening economic and military ties in the Indo-Pacific region a cornerstone of his foreign policy.
Ahead of the summit, U.S. lawmakers sent a bipartisan letter to Biden calling on him to raise what they called the worsening human rights “crisis” in the Philippines.
In a statement they said there were well-documented violations under Duterte but recent reports showed “ongoing impunity.” They cited reports from the Karapatan Human Rights Alliance of 17 extrajudicial killings, 165 illegal arrests from July to December 2022, and a total of 825 political prisoners.
The new Philippines bases the U.S. gained access to last month include three facing Taiwan and one near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. China said this was “stoking the fire” of regional tensions and Washington should take no role in a dispute far from its shores.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
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