Marcos: US, China key actors in maintaining peace, security

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. said Tuesday that the United States and China were key actors in ensuring peace and security in the Asia-Pacific Region.

''I wish to also stress that the Philippines has an independent foreign policy. The Philippines considers both the United States and China as key actors in maintaining peace and security, as well as economic growth and development in the region,'' said Marcos as he called on Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Ching during his two-day visit to Vietnam.

''The US is the Philippines’ only treaty ally. And as such, we continue to pursue military cooperation with the US to strengthen our defensive capability and our ability to respond to humanitarian crises and disasters,'' he added.

The President said the Philippines would not pick sides and raise tensions among nations.

The Philippines and the US had established bilateral defense guidelines to modernize the alliance cooperation "for a free and open Indo-Pacific region."

The guidelines "reaffirmed that an armed attack in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea, on either of their aircraft or armed forces – which includes their Coast Guards – would invoke mutual defense commitments under the 1951 PH-US Mutual Defense Treaty."

For its part, China continued its activities in the resource-rich sea despite an arbitral ruling that invalidated its massive claim in the area.

Marcos has since said the tension with China should not define Manila's ties with Beijing. — DVM, GMA Integrated News