MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s visit to the U.S. this week is not meant to escalate tensions between the Philippines and China.
In a media interview, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said that there is no truth to such criticisms and that the President has been reaching out to other countries, particularly in the ASEAN region to push for cooperation.
“Once again, that is absolutely not true. The fact is President Marcos has reached out to other ASEAN neighbors, specifically Vietnam, Indonesia, even Malaysia and even Brunei. He (President Marcos) has met with all the other presidents (the same), we have overlapping claims in the same area,” Ambassador Romualdez said.
“We are talking to them, meaning the President himself has indicated that he would like to see some cooperation with these other countries,” Romualdez added.
Romualdez further explained that the President’s visits to the United States, as well as the cooperation between the countries is “natural” considering that both countries are old allies.
“The United States is an old ally of the Philippines and there is no question about it. Nobody can question the fact that we have been with the United States for a very long time. This is a country that feels that if they can help us, especially since it also jives with their own national interest, then it is only natural for us to have this type of defense strategy with the United States,” Romualdez expounded.
The Ambassador also stressed that Marcos’ visits to the U.S. is “part and parcel” of the relationship between the two countries and is what the current administration’s foreign policy is, which is the “multilateral approach”.
“So, all of this is part and parcel of what President Marcos is just simply continuing this relationship that we have with the United States, and the fact that he's been invited to come to the United States doesn’t really mean that he comes here because we are trying to lean just totally with the United States as he has clearly said. Multilateral approach to the problems in the region is his way or what he feels is the foreign policy he has already spelled out,” Romualdez explains.
He also lamented on how China has viewed the upcoming Trilateral Summit between the Philippines, the United States and Japan in Washington D.C. this coming April 11 to 12.
According to Romualdez, it is “very unfortunate” that China looks at the Trilateral Summit as directed towards them.
“The Trilateral Meeting is mainly cooperation of three countries that believe that it is in their interest that we have this strong cooperation, not necessarily on defense alone, but again, the economic cooperation. There are many aspects of economic cooperation that we have like the clean energy, infrastructure, digital, cyberspace, all of these things are part and parcel of what we see as important for the three countries. in fact, there are other countries who will most likely will be joining in, in the future,” Ambassador Romualdez said.
The diplomat went further and described the upcoming Trilateral Summit as not just “historical” but “momentous” as well, as this is the first invitation for the Philippines and Japan from the U.S. to further not just defense but economic cooperation between the three countries.
Romualdez believes that this is not only good for the Philippines, but for the Indo-Pacific region and will define what the area will be like in the future.
