Blinken, PBBM to meet in Manila
UNITED States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to embark on a two-day visit to the Philippines on August 5 to 6 to meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to further strengthen the US-Philippines alliance.
The US Embassy in Manila said Friday Blinken’s meeting with Marcos and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will cover “bilateral efforts” to strengthen the two nations’ alliance.
Blinken’s meeting with Manalo will focus on sustaining the “positive trajectory of relations” between the two nations and broadening cooperation in the economic sphere, particularly on pandemic recovery and addressing the climate crisis, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The US official and the Filipino executives are also set to talk about other regional and global challenges as well as ways to “advance shared democratic values.”
This will be Blinken’s first trip to the country since assuming office in January 2021.
Blinken would be traveling to the Philippines after attending the US-Asean Ministerial Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Cambodia from August 3 to 5.
The State Department said Blinken would “emphasize the US’ commitment to Asean centrality and successful implementation of the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.”
He would also address the coronavirus pandemic, economic cooperation, the fight against climate change, the crisis in Myanmar and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The DFA said the situation in Myanmar, Ukraine and the South China Sea are among the topics the ASEAN and its partners are expected to focus on during the Cambodia meetings.
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu earlier said Russia would be included in the ASEAN meetings, describing the bloc as a distinct grouping that “provides a forum for preventive diplomacy, for peaceful management of disputes and tensions even among conflicting parties.”
“We want this distinction to be respected and for ASEAN centrality to be respected. So we said no one will be excluded. No process will be disrupted,” Espiritu said.