WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States and the Philippines reaffirmed their decades-old security alliance yesterday and President Joe Biden told his counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. the U.S. commitment to the defense of its ally was “ironclad,” including in the South China Sea where Manila is under pressure from China.
Marcos, on the first White House visit by a Philippines leader in 10 years, stressed the importance of the United States as his country’s sole treaty ally in a region with “arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.”
The trip marks a dramatic turnaround in U.S.-Philippine relations as both countries seek ways to push back against what they see as China’s increasingly aggressive actions near Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
U.S. officials said the leaders would agree new guidelines for stronger military cooperation, as well as stepped up economic cooperation.
“The United States remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea,” Biden told Marcos in the Oval Office.
A joint statement said this meant that any armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.
Washington sees the Philippines as key to any effort to counter an invasion of Taiwan by China, which claims the island as its own territory. Manila recently agreed to allow the United States access to four more of its military bases under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, but the two sides have not said what U.S. assets will be stationed at those.
The joint statement said the leaders “affirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity.”
