MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Donald Trump will host his Philippine counterpart in the White House “very soon” to discuss how the longtime treaty allies can further deepen their security and economic engagements, the Philippine ambassador to the U.S. said Friday.
No date has been specified for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s meeting with Trump in Washington but Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said that it would happen “very soon” this month. The allies have boosted mutual defense engagements, including large-scale combat exercises in the Philippines, to strengthen deterrence against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region.
Among the proposed topics for discussion is strengthening “peace through deterrence,” Romualdez told The Associated Press by telephone, echoing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ’s remarks about the U.S. military’s plan to ratchet up deterrence against China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea by intensifying military and defense engagements with the Philippines and allied nations in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Japanese and Philippine counterparts in a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ annual ministerial meetings in Malaysia. The U.S., Japan and the Philippines have been building a trilateral bloc to broaden security and economic cooperation.
“We have a great relationship with Japan and the Philippines and work closely with them on the economic corridor, on maritime security and territorial integrity and continue to build upon that partnership,” Rubio said after his meeting in Malaysia with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro. Washington looks “forward to hosting the president of the Philippines in Washington in a few days.”
The U.S. has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the busy sea passage, a key global trade route.
Japan also has a separate territorial conflict with China over small, Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea.
