VP Harris to meet Philippines’ Marcos in effort to boost ties, On Monday, US Vice President Kamala Harris will have a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos as part of a trip to the country in Southeast Asia to strengthen ties between the longtime allies. Since Marcos’ ascension to power in June, Harris is the highest-ranking American diplomat to travel to Manila. As China increases its influence in the region, the US is making an attempt with this tour to dispel any concerns about its commitment to the Asia-Pacific. Years of tense relations between the Philippines and the United States were caused by the previous administration of China-friendly Rodrigo Duterte.
VP Harris to meet Philippines’ Marcos in effort to boost ties
With a new president in office and escalating regional tensions, Washington is looking to strengthen its security partnership with Manila. This includes a mutual defense pact and an agreement from 2014 known as EDCA, which permits the US military to keep defense supplies and equipment on multiple bases in the Philippines. Additionally, five US military bases there are accessible to US forces.
EDCA languished under Duterte, but as China becomes more forceful, the United States and the Philippines have said they support speeding its implementation. Prior to Harris’ meeting with Marcos and her counterpart Sara Duterte, a US official told reporters under the condition of anonymity, “We have identified new locations and have begun a process with the Philippines to finalize those.” “Over $82 million has already been allocated by the United States for the implementation (of the existing bases), and more is on the way.”
Harris will travel to the disputed South China Sea region on Tuesday, when he will visit the Philippine province of Palawan. While the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei have overlapping claims to different portions of the sea, China asserts sovereignty over nearly the whole area. Beijing disregarded a 2016 decision by an international tribunal that found Beijing’s claims to be without merit. On board one of the Philippine Coast Guard’s two largest ships, Harris will meet members of the organization.
The US official, using the US term for the Asia-Pacific, stated that she will “reaffirm the strength of the alliance and our commitment to sustaining the international rules-based order in the South China Sea and the broader Indo-Pacific.” Following their respective meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, Harris and US President Joe Biden are now traveling.
Speaking to Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok, Harris reaffirmed Biden’s message that “we must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries,” a White House official said. Negotiations for a civilian nuclear agreement between the United States and the Philippines are among the projects that will be started during Harris’s visit to the Philippines.
This might result in future sales of US nuclear reactors to the nation in Southeast Asia. Marcos, a fervent proponent of renewable energy, has asked that nuclear power plant construction in the prone to disaster nation be rethought. However, the Philippines and the United States must first sign a “123 agreement,” a civilian nuclear pact meant to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, before the United States can sell the Philippines nuclear equipment.