U.S. President Joe Biden (R) shakes hands with Philippino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday. Photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI | License Photo
May 1 (UPI) — President Joe Biden will meet with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the White House Monday to reaffirm U.S. defense commitments in Southeast Asia and to discuss ways to shore up an expanding military alliance.
Administration officials have billed the meeting as “extremely significant,” calling it the first high-level summit between the leaders of the two nations in many decades.
President Marcos and his entourage were set to arrive in Washington in the afternoon with a series of meetings planned throughout the week.
Biden and Marcos will discuss ways to improve economic cooperation through clean energy initiatives and cultural and humanitarian connections but will mainly focus on efforts to deter China amid increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
The meeting comes days after the United States and the Philippines completed their largest-ever joint military exercise that was intended to demonstrate a growing partnership that would stand up to an increasingly assertive leadership in Beijing, which has threatened to take disputed territory throughout the South China Sea.
The U.S. was also seeking to bolster relations with other regional partners, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who established a new security strategy with Biden at the White House in January, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, whose sit-down with Biden last week resulted in an agreement to dock U.S. nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea for the first time in more than 40 years.
Next month, Biden plans to attend the G7 in Japan, where he will follow up with both Yoon and Kishida before heading off to Australia for a broader meeting with the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan on the subject of China and maritime security.
The U.S. and the Philippines established a critical alliance during the Vietnam War, but relations turned lukewarm in the decades that followed.
Now though, a senior administration official told reporters during a Monday teleconference to set up Marcos’ visit that “recent events have caused much greater focus in both capitals on taking the necessary step to up our game, to improve engagement on the security side between the United States and the Philippines.”
“The Philippines is also engaging actively with Japan and other countries in the Indo-Pacific, given their changing circumstances,” the official said.
White House officials pointed to a series of recent Chinese provocations, including encroachment into the Philippines’ territorial waters.
They also called attention to a speech last week by the Chinese ambassador to Manila who warned of the “changing circumstances in the Indo-Pacific” while suggesting that the safety of nearly 200,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan was at risk.
In March, Chinese President Xi Jinping opened his third term with a defiant speech that vowed to strengthen the military and take steps toward “reunification” with Taiwan after decades of tensions with the U.S. over the sovereignty of the small island.
Marcos previously indicated that he was growing deeply concerned over China’s continued belligerence which has led him to seek increased backup from the United States, officials said.
“I think the visit … is meant in many respects to diversify what we think are very important initial security engagements of the last several months. And you will see the president here not only focusing on security commitments and other things that the United States is prepared to do with the Philippines, but we will launch a number of initiatives on the commercial side,” the official said.
U.S. engagement with the Phillippines has increased significantly during Biden’s term.
Biden was the first world leader to call and congratulate Marcos when he was elected president of the Philippines in May 2022. The following month, the administration sent a delegation of U.S. officials to the inauguration, which was led by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
That was followed by a visit to Manila by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in early August, plus a brief conference between Biden and Marcos on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last year.
In September, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Manila and then to the disputed island of Palawan for meetings in November. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also went to Manila in late January while holding meetings with his counterparts in Washington.
