Manila to host PH-US joint foreign, defense meet

MANILA, Philippines – Manila will host on Tuesday, July 30, the fourth 2+2 joint ministerial meeting between the defense and foreign ministers of the Philippines and the United States. 

In a statement on Monday, July 22, the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and their US counterparts, US State Secretary Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, are expected to talk about “how to further enhance our two countries’ ironclad commitment to this alliance” during the joint ministerial dialogue.

The secretaries are also expected to talk about the Philippines and United States’ “support of the rules-based international order, enhanced economic ties, broad-based prosperity, and solutions to evolving regional and global security challenges,” according to the DFA. 

“The Philippines-US alliance has contributed to the maintenance of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region for over 70 years,” the department said.

The last 2+2 dialogue was hosted in Washington DC back in April 2023. Teodoro had yet to be appointed to the post then, since the Philippine ban on appointing losing candidates from the 2022 polls had not yet lapsed. 

Blinken and Austin, who’ve visited the Philippines in the past, are also set to call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during their July trip here.  

The meeting comes as Marcos and his administration try to bring down tensions in the West Philippine Sea, following a June 17 resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal that went awry. China Coast Guard personnel attacked Filipino soldiers already moored beside the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusting warship that was ran around in the shoal back in 1999.

The incident — the most violent yet between the Philippines and China — led to the destruction of Navy boats, the seizure of Philippine Navy riffles, and one Filipino soldier losing his right thumb. 

The US, bound to the Philippines by the Mutual Defense Treaty, reiterated in the incident’s aftermath that the pact applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea. 

Bilateral ties between the Philippines and its former colonizer, the United States, have been on “hyperdrive” under the Marcos administration.

In the first two years of the administration, the Philippines agreed to giving the US access to four more military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), while the US released new bilateral defense guidelines following Marcos’ urging. Washington DC also recently played host to a trilateral leaders summit between US President Joe Biden, Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, and Marcos. 

On the sidelines of Marcos’ visit to Washington for the trilateral leaders summit, the Philippines and the United States held a 3+3 meeting, which involved the foreign affairs, defense, and national security chiefs of the two countries.

It’s a stark contrast from bilateral ties under former president Rodrigo Duterte – under whose term no 2+2 meeting took place. The second 2+2 joint ministerial meeting happened in January 2016 under the late Benigno Aquino III’s administration, with the late foreign affairs chief Albert del Rosario and former defense chief Voltaire Gazmin representing Manila.

Before its ministers’ Manila visit, the US will also be conducting a 2+2 meeting with Japan on July 28.

The talks will cover extended deterrence, a term used to describe the US commitment to use its nuclear and conventional forces to deter attacks on allies, Japan’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

Blinken will hold a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa during the visit, while US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold three-way talks with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea. – with reports from Reuters/Rappler.com