Senior diplomats from the Philippines, United States and Japan are holding meetings this week in Tokyo purportedly to firm up the agenda for the first trilateral summit of their leaders at the White House in Washington DC next month.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Maria Theresa Lazaro, Japan Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, and US Deputy State Secretary Kurt Campbell are expected to discuss the agenda for the trilateral summit, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier said would pave the way for the “a new horizon of cooperation.”
US President Joe Biden will host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on April 11 at the White House for a trilateral summit aimed at reaffirming their “ironclad alliance,” the White House said.
Blinken, who visited Manila earlier this week, met with Mr. Marcos and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and reaffirmed the commitment of the US to its long-standing ally following a series of hostilities between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
According to Blinken, the relationship between the Philippines and the US is an “absolute priority” of the Biden administration and that expanding this cooperation under a trilateral framework with Japan would bolster the “rich foundation between our countries on economic development, climate change, food security, and upholding international law.”
During the summit in Washington DC, the three leaders are expected to discuss ways “to promote inclusive economic growth and emerging technologies, advance clean energy supply chains and climate cooperation, and further peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world,” the White House said.
The US, Japan and the Philippines have been the most vocal critics of China’s aggressive and hostile actions in the South China Sea.
China has insisted on its massive claims over most of the South China Sea through a “nine-dash-line” which eventually evolved into a “ten-dash-line” that loops as far as 1,500 km south of its mainland, cutting into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
It has likewise rejected a 2016 ruling rendered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration which invalidated its massive claim and upheld the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.