WASHINGTON: The United States’ commitments to the defence of Japan and the Philippines remain “ironclad,” President Joe Biden has said as he launched a new trilateral partnership in the strategic Indo-Pacific with the leaders of the two countries amid their separate territorial disputes with China.
Biden’s comments came as he hosted the first-ever trilateral summit between the three countries, welcoming Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the White House a day after the official visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Japan and the Philippines have separate territorial disputes with China. In Tokyo’s case, the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and in Manila’s case areas of the South China Sea are disputed with Beijing. Biden also asserted that any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or its armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke “our mutual defence treaty”.
The visit to Washington by Marcos comes days after Manila accused a Chinese vessel of “highly dangerous manoeuvres” near the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed maritime region near the Spratly Islands.
The US-Japan-Philippines trilateral comes after the creation of groupings in the Indo-Pacific, starting with the Quad, comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan, and the AUKUS consisting of Australia, the US and the UK, amid increasing concerns over China’s military muscle-flexing in the region.
Biden said: “Today we commit to writing that story in the future together to build an Indo-Pacific that is free, open, prosperous and secure for all,” Biden said as he described the US, Japan and the Philippines as “three allies, three steadfast partners and three proud democracies”.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said amid the compound crisis faced by the global community, multi-layered cooperation between allies and like-minded countries is essential if they are to maintain and bolster a free and open international order based on the rule of law.
In his remarks, Philippine President Marcos said, “We meet today as friends and partners bound by a shared vision and pursuit of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”