“Our alliance with the Philippines is the oldest in the Indo Pacific and has never been stronger,” says one senior administration official.
President Joe Biden is set to enter a second day of modernizing alliances in the Indo-Pacific with a bilateral summit meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., followed by the first-ever trilateral meeting between them and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“Our alliance with the Philippines is the oldest in the Indo-Pacific and has never been stronger,” a senior administration official told reporters during a call on April 10, adding that defense and security ties continue to serve as a cornerstone of that alliance.
Joint Coast Guard activity is also expected to be announced to take place in the coming year, and the U.S. Coast Guard will welcome members of the Philippine and Japanese Coast Guards onto their vessels in the Indo-Pacific for training and to synchronize their work together.
Senior administration officials said more trilateral military exercises could be announced as well, as the United States and Japan work closely with the Philippines’ government to boost cooperative capacity in line with the vision announced today of a coordinated effort that better integrates ballistic missile and air defense capabilities around the Indo-Pacific, and ensures they have what they need in order to uphold international law. However, one official points out that this vision is still probably a few years off.
The main point of these exercises, another official said, is to help “the military modernization of the Philippines,” and increase coordination and interoperability with other militaries, as well as “help facilitate monitoring assistance and disaster response.”
The United States will also announce trilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster response, specifically the launch of new initiatives by a partnership between USAID and the Department of Defense to pre-position humanitarian relief commodities for the Philippine civilian disaster response authority.
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The meeting between the two presidents comes at an active time for those countries impacted by the Chinese Communist Party asserting territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The United States recently added four new sites under the current enhanced cooperation defense agreement and provided an additional $100 million in foreign military financing.
The United States and the Philippines recently joined Japan and Australia in a joint naval exercise in that area of the South China Sea, and a senior administration official said that the meeting on April 11 is a clear sign of American support and commitment to the Philippines.
Senior administration officials also said the two leaders are set to announce new infrastructure projects and economic investments involving improvements to undersea cables, clean energy, ports and rail, telecommunications, and semiconductor supply chains.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is expected to announce a new office in the Philippines, and both the U.S. and Japanese governments and industries are expected to announce millions of dollars in funding for open radio access network (O-RAN) field trials and to support an O-RAN economy in Manila.
President Biden and President Marcos are also expected to discuss their shared commitment to democratic values, including “respect for human rights and internationally recognized labor rights,” according to one senior administration official.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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