US eyes strengthened ties with PH for four more years

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III on Tuesday said the US is looking forward to strengthening its bilateral relationship with the Philippines in the next four years, ahead of the November elections.

Austin made the pronouncement during a courtesy call on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañan Palace.

Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are in the Philippines for the 4th Philippines-US Foreign and Defense Ministerial Dialogue (2+2 Dialogue), which is hosted by the Philippines for the first time. Previous meetings were held in Washington DC.

“We have common interests, common values, and so I think we've done a lot over the last three and a half years to continue to strengthen our alliance, and I look forward to another three and a half, or another four, in building, strengthening this relationship. But thanks for your leadership, Mr. President, it's been a great three and a half years,” Austin told Marcos.

Carina, Habagat

Blinken, for his part, said the US stands ready to be of assistance to the victims of Tropical Cyclone Carina and the enhanced Southwest Monsoon or Habagat, and that the US is seeing continuity in high-level engagements with the Philippines.

“Mr. President, thank you for the, as always, the warm welcome. I bring you greetings from President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris. We're very, very pleased to be here. Let me just start by sending our deepest condolences to all the victims of the recent typhoon, and to say again, anything we can do to be of assistance, we welcome doing that,” Blinken said.

“Today is genuinely historic. This is the first time that the Philippines has hosted our two plus two, and it is an evidence of a really steady drumbeat of very high-level engagements between our countries that are covering the full range of issues and opportunities that bring us together, not only security, but also economic. We're truly grateful for this partnership,” he added.

Open communication lines
 
In response, Marcos thanked the US officials for making the time to visit the Philippines even amid the "interesting political situation" in Washington. 

Marcos did not elaborate, but US President Biden recently dropped out of the upcoming presidential elections as the nominee of the Democrats, following what many see as his underwhelming performance during a presidential debate with his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden has since been replaced by Vice President Harris as the Democrats' presidential nominee, meaning her party and supporters will have less than five months to mount up enough support to defeat Republican presidential nominee Trump.

“Welcome back to the Philippines. And I am always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the all the things that we are doing together in terms of our alliance, in terms of a specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea, in the Indo-Pacific, are continuously examined and re-examined, so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Marcos told Austin and Blinken.

“We are very happy to see you once again. I'm a bit surprised considering how interesting your political situation has become back in the States, but I'm glad that you found the time to come and visit with us.” 

The Philippines and the US have an existing Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) signed in 1952. Under it, each party "recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes."

The MDT also provides that "an armed attack on either of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the Island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific."

The Philippines-US formal diplomatic relations spans 78 years since its formal establishment on July 4, 1946. —KBK, GMA Integrated News