Marcos: PH-US-Japan meant to maintain peace in Indo-Pacific

PRAGUE—The Philippines' trilateral engagement with the United States and Japan is meant to maintain the peace in the Indo-Pacific region and not to win any conflict in the region, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said on Thursday.

At the joint press conference with Czech Republic President Petr Pavel, Marcos also cited the region's importance when it came to international trade when asked about what he expected from the meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken next week.

''This safe navigation and passage of the South China Sea is important  to international trade, as goes to 60% of international trade goes to that channel and we hope to continue these discussions,'' Marcos said.

''And with an eye not to winning any kind of conflict but really just to maintain the peace and to continue to defend sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Philippines when it comes to these international differences,'' he added.

The Philippines' trilateral meeting with officials from the United States and Japan next week is expected to formalize and give more structure to the cooperation among the three countries, Marcos earlier said.

He indicated that what the three countries would take up in Manila is still the subject of discussions in Washington, Tokyo, and in the Philippine capital.

Blinken will first arrive in Manila on March 18 for bilateral talks with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and other senior Philippine officials before their March 20 trilateral ministerial meeting with Kamikawa, the sources said.

The top-level meetings follow a series of hostilities between Chinese and Philippine ships and vessels in the disputed South China Sea, which have been denounced by the Philippines along with the United States and Japan. —NB, GMA Integrated News