Marcos, Trump affirm deep PHL-US ties in ‘very productive’ phone call

By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

PHILIPPINE President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Tuesday said he had a “very productive” congratulatory phone call with United States President-elect Donald J. Trump, following an election that has put countries in the Indo-Pacific region on a wait-and-see mode.

“I expressed to him our continuing desire to strengthen the relationship between our two countries,” Mr. Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of his visit to a typhoon-hit province in the Bicol region, based on a transcript from his office.

He said the relationship between the US and the Philippines are “as deep as can possibly be because it has been for a very long time.”

Also on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, who is in his fourth visit to Manila, said the US alliance with the Philippines would transcend changes in administrations, as he reiterated his support for the Southeast Asian nation.

The Philippines will remain an important country for the United States for many years, Mr. Austin told a press conference during a visit to the Philippine military’s Western Command on the island of Palawan next to the South China Sea.

Both Mr. Austin and Philippine counterpart Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo C. Teodoro, Jr. expressed concerns over China’s conduct in the South China Sea, with the Pentagon chief reiterating Washington’s defense commitments to the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).

Mr. Austin said the treaty would also cover armed attack in the South China Sea, where he said China had used dangerous and escalatory measures to try to assert its expansive claims.

The Philippines and China have been embroiled in repeated spats in the past few years over disputed features within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, sparking regional concerns about a miscalculation and escalation at sea.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce, putting it at odds with its Southeast Asian neighbors.

US-Philippine ties have reached unprecedented levels under Mr. Biden, with Washington announcing a plan to develop an economic corridor on the main island of Luzon in April following a trilateral meeting among Mr. Marcos, his US counterpart, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Last year, Manila gave Washington access to four more military bases under their 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

STABLE ALLIANCE
The call, which Mr. Marcos described as “very friendly” and “very productive” signals the continuity of a stable alliance between the two countries, an analyst said.

It “shows the likely stability of the PH-US alliance in the next few years,” said Joshua Bernard B. Espeña, who teaches foreign relations at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

“Indeed, Trump shows indicators of skepticism towards Atlanticist multilateral arrangements, but it’s another story towards Indo-Pacific arrangements, such as the bipartisan support towards China policy on lines of trade and defense matters,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

“This complexity coincides with the Philippines under the Marcos administration whose aim is to bolster a large defense network as it can while committing itself to do more as long as the other does the same.”

Following Mr. Trump’s election, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson cited bipartisan support for foreign military financing to the Philippines.

While there are nuances that will change in every US administration, “the strength of the US-Philippine relations and the importance of the Indo-Pacific to the American people will remain,” she said on the sidelines of an election viewing event in Manila.

She said support from both Democrats and Republicans in the US goes “across the board, not just when it comes to our military-to-military relationship.”

“Trump’s business-minded personality and Marcos’ cosmopolitan outlook provide a compatible hue to the color of the Indo-Pacific strategic environment,” Mr. Espeña said.

“Of course, their personalities should transcend into institutionalization of compatible grand strategies for decades to come.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Marcos said he also “reminded” Mr. Trump that Filipinos in America “overwhelmingly” supported him during the November polls.

“I plan to meet him as soon as I can,” he added. — with Reuters