Political allies hailed Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s first visit to the United States as Philippine president as a ‘home run’: he secured one of the few bilateral meetings with Joe Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly United in New York.
The American welcome reflects the decisive steps taken by Marcos to revitalize Manila’s alliance with Washington after a pivot to China under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
But Manila is trying to carefully balance ties with its security ally and its powerful neighbor, fearful of being on the front line of any superpower conflict.
“We are aware of the competition between the two hegemons. We’re just trying to look at it from a perspective that really aligns with our interests,” Clarita Carlos, Marcos’ national security adviser, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Everything that China offers us in terms of trade. . . or infrastructure, we’ll take it. Everything that the United States offers us in terms of a security umbrella must also be taken into consideration,” Carlos said.
As the FT reported last week, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart Jose Faustino Jr will join the bilateral military coordination talks on Thursday, the first time such government figures have taken part in the annual talks. The two armies also plan to double the size of their annual joint exercise next year.
According to U.S. and Filipino officials familiar with the situation, Manila and Washington aim to improve their security relationship with regular dialogue between the foreign and defense secretaries, likely to begin early next year. They also intend to strengthen joint planning by adopting a set of bilateral defense guidelines, such as those the United States has with Japan.
Separately, Marcos, known at home as “Bongbong,” has taken a tougher line in his country’s territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea, which Manila calls the Western Philippine Sea, than Duterte.
Duterte described challenging Beijing’s land claims as a “waste of time”. In contrast, Marcos emphasized in his inaugural speech that he “would not preside over any process that would surrender even one square centimeter of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to a foreign power.”
As Duterte attempted to refocus the armed forces on internal security, Faustino made external security the top priority of his 10-point political agenda – reflecting Manila’s realization that it must prepare for the scenario of being embroiled in a war between China and the United States. on Taiwan.
US diplomats have done all they can to ensure that controversy over Marcos’ family background will not interfere with the engagement as they seize the opportunity to strengthen ties with the oldest security ally from Washington to Asia.
In 2011, a court in Hawaii fined Marcos and his mother Imelda Marcos $353 million for contempt of court in a case stemming from human rights abuses during martial law imposed by his late father. dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Despite this court order, Washington publicly reassured Marcos that he could enter the United States without risk of detention.
But Beijing is also courting the Philippine president. During Marcos’ inauguration in June, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan expressed hope for a “new golden age” in bilateral relations, playing on the new leader’s desire to restore the image of his family and the role of the Marcos clan in building ties in the 1970s.
Prior to his election, Marcos’ supporters described his father’s rule as a “golden age” for the country – a view at odds with those who remember the persecution of political opponents and economic decline. The family is still proud of its early relationship with Chinese leaders, stemming from a visit to Beijing in 1974 during which Mao Zedong kissed the hand of then first lady Imelda.
Beijing has said agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people relations are the “big four” priorities in bilateral ties, matching Marcos’ own agenda.
Additionally, Beijing is cultivating ties with the Filipino establishment by offering cheap and easily accessible English language scholarships in China to government and military officials, several Filipino officials told the FT.
Last month, China established an association for alumni of its defense university in Nanjing in the Philippine military and held a photo exhibit celebrating bilateral relations at the Philippine defense ministry.
Despite Marcos’ rebalancing vis-à-vis the United States, his government is also receptive to overtures from Beijing.
“The contest in the Western Philippine Sea will not be the main thing to define our relationship with China. That’s why we do the things we agree on,” Carlos said. “I believe that then there will be more chances for cooperation, collegiality, trust and confidence building.”
The national security adviser said she wants to prioritize academic exchanges and a fishing deal with China. The Army and Foreign Service want the government to do more to strengthen the alliance with the United States.
“What has saved the alliance so far is our military-to-military relationship. But now we need to get the higher ups involved to make things more sustainable,” said Rommel Jude Ong, a professor at the Ateneo School of Government in Manila and former Vice Commander of the Philippine Navy.