MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Sunday, April 30, left Manila for a days-long visit to the United States that would “reaffirm” the Philippines’ “special relationship” with its one-time colonizer.
Malacañang and the Foreign Affairs department earlier said defense and the economy would be top priorities during the visit to Washington DC from April 30 to May 4.
“During this visit, we will reaffirm our commitment to fostering our long-standing alliance as an instrument of peace and as a catalyst of development in the Asia-Pacific region and for that matter the rest of the world,” Marcos said.
“I intend to convey to President Biden and his senior Cabinet officials that the President is determined to forge an ever stronger relationship with the United States in a wide range of areas that not only address the concerns of our times, but also those that are critical to advancing our core interests. These areas include food security, agricultural productivity development, and digital economy, energy security, climate change, cybersecurity as well as ensuring our resilience from threats to our economy, including global supply chain disruptions and economic coercion,” he added.
PR001, a Philippine Airlines plane chartered especially for the visit, left the Villamor Airbase past 1:30 pm. The plane is expected to arrive in the US late afternoon Sunday, April 30 (East Coast time).
In Washington DC, Marcos is set to hold his second bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden on May 1 at the White House. He will also join an “expanded” meeting with Cabinet officials. Marcos is set to meet with legislators and different American companies, in separate occasions although the Palace has yet to disclose who he will be meeting with.
The visit concludes with a speaking engagement with Washington DC-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies on May 4.
Marcos flies to Washington just as regional geopolitical tensions – many of them with the Philippines right in the center – rise.
In early April, Malacañang announced the Philippines would open four more military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) of the two countries.
China, with whom the US is competing for dominance in the global sphere, expressed alarm over the move, accusing Americans of making tensions in the region worse. The four new sites means the US can preposition its assets closer to the West Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, and Taiwan.
Marcos responded by saying there’s no need to worry about US military presence in the Philippines if the country is attacked.
China’s top Manila envoy Huang Xillian recently advised the Philippines to stand against “Taiwan independence” if it cared about the Filipinos working in Taiwan. While Marcos downplayed Huang’s statements as being lost in translation, others saw it as a barely-veiled threat.
While Marcos has declared a future of the Philippines without the US unimaginable, he’s also promised a “new golden age” marked by “maturity” in its relationship with China.
Yet China’s aggressions in the South China Sea have worsened – a little over a month after his January 2023 state visit to Beijing, Marcos summoned Huang over a laser-pointing incident that nearly harmed Filipinos in the sea.
Ties with the US, particularly when it comes to defense, have also tightened under Marcos, who graced the largest-ever Balikatan days before flying to Washington DC.
Marcos himself alluded to the return to close Philippine-US ties, pointing out in his speech that he was the first Philippine president to visit Washington DC in over a decade.
Marcos will be joined by key Cabinet members, including those under the defense and economic clusters. Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will be joining Marcos during the visit as well.
After the US visit, Marcos will fly to the United Kingdom to attend the coronation of King Charles III, and then to Indonesia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. While he is abroad, Vice President Sara Duterte is government caretaker, according to Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil.
Source: rappler
