MANILA: Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told United States Cabinet secretaries Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin on Tuesday (30 Jul) that regular engagements between Manila and Washington were needed to ensure “agile” responses to his country’s maritime tensions with China.
US treaty ally the Philippines has repeatedly sparred at sea with China, the main US rival in the Indo-Pacific, this past year, but the two sides have now reached a “provisional arrangement” to ease tensions and manage differences.
Marcos greeted Secretary of State Blinken and Defence Secretary Austin at the Malacanang Palace on Tuesday morning ahead of meetings with their Filipino counterparts, the first such meetings hosted by the Philippines.
“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things we are doing together, in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here, in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific, are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Marcos said.