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President Biden has found a somewhat surprising new friend in the fight against China.
When Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in June, it was unclear how the son of a former dictator would position his country in the battle between superpowers.
But Marcos has made a stark break from the pro-Beijing policies of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, earning himself a visit this week to the White House.
“Chinese coercion lifts all boats,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“After six years of the Duterte government trying to do the exact opposite and bend over backwards to appease Beijing, the perception in Manila is that they got nothing for it,” he told The Hill. “Now they need to try it the other way — enhancing deterrence by strengthening the alliance with the Americans.”
Marcos’s four-day visit to the U.S., the first for a Filipino leader in more than a decade, comes days after the U.S. and Philippine militaries wrapped up major joint exercises meant to deter Chinese influence in the South China Sea.
The two countries also recently agreed to allow the U.S. military access to four more of the Philippine’s military bases in a deal known as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
“We’re standing at a transformational moment in the U.S.-Philippines alliance,” top Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday in announcing a Wednesday meeting between Marcos and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Ryder said that the meeting will include discussions on “a wide range of security topics, including support for the Philippine defense modernization efforts and expanding operational cooperation in the South China Sea.
