President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that “any attack” on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea would “invoke our mutual defense treaty.”
Speaking during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House, Biden revealed growing concern about proactive Chinese military action in the Indo-Pacific.
Beginning the meeting with Kishida and Marcos, he said: “The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad.
“They’re ironclad. As I said before, any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.”
The White House saw the summit as countering China’s attempts at “intimidation” and sending a message that China is “the outlier in the neighborhood,” according to an administration official.
From the summit, the leaders are expected to announce that their coast guards will hold a joint patrol in the Indo-Pacific this year, a follow-up on law enforcement drills carried out last year by the allies in waters near the disputed South China Sea.
The US Coast Guard will also welcome Filipino and Japanese coast guard members onto a US Coast Guard vessel during the patrol for training, according to senior Biden administration officials.
The summit comes a day after Biden held one-on-one talks with Kishida and feted the Japanese premier with a glitzy state dinner at the White House, a diplomatic honor meant to recognize Tokyo’s growing clout on the global stage.
It was also designed to send a clear signal that the Democratic administration remains determined to build what it calls a “latticework” of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as it grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Biden also was hosting Marcos for a private meeting at the White House ahead of the scheduled three-way talks.
Marcos delivered an opening statement during the trilateral summit on Thursday and said: “Today’s summit is an opportunity to define the future that we want and how we intend to achieve it together.”
On Wednesday, Biden also reflected on the fact that Japan, once a fierce US enemy, has become one of the closest American partners and an indispensable ally in a shared push for peace, security and prosperity in the Pacific and beyond.
Biden said during a ceremony at the White House: “Just a few generations ago, our two nations were locked in a devastating conflict. It would have been easy to say we remain adversaries. Instead, we made a far better choice: We became the closest of friends.”
Thursday’s three-way summit will also have a large economic component with several major US-based companies — including Meta, UPS and Greenbrier Energy — announcing investments in the Philippines, administration officials said.
The new deals come after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited Manila last month to announce more than $1 billion in new investment by American companies in the Philippines.
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