President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., stressed the importance and development of US-Philippines relations amid heightened tensions in Asia, brought about by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the Asian region particularly Taiwan, which China considers apostate.
In the Philippines, tensions between the US and China are rising as Speaker Pelosi is known to have used the Philippines' international airport to transfer to Taiwan earlier this week.
But Marcos said Pelosi's visits to Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, did not increase the intensity of the conflict but showed how it has always been in the region.
“It was really fair for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to come here. . To be honest, I don't think it escalates tension, but rather shows the intensity of the conflict. In fact, it was at that level for a long time, but we got used to it and put it aside,” he said at a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Malacca Nang.
"It shows how unstable regional and international diplomacy is," he added.
In the memo, the CEO emphasized the importance of US-Philippines relations.
"Based on all the changes that we have witnessed and the changes that are happening in our bilateral relationship with the United States, we hope that we will continue to develop that relationship," Marcos said.
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The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has rejected a request to visit or travel to Manila from longtime Chinese critic Pelosi.
However, according to foreign media reports, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 tracked the US Air Force plane that left Kuala Lumpur for Taiwan and took Pelosi to Malaysia, near the southern Philippines.
The tracker usually found the plane off the west coast of the Philippines, from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei, and flew along the east Pacific coast of the Philippines. Peloshi's visit to Taipei increased the tension between Washington and Beijing. Because the last Taiwan considers the closest island and is not recognized as a sovereign state at international level.
The Philippines, on the other hand, follows the One China Policy.
At the meeting, Marcos also expressed his hopes for the "sustainable development" of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) that Blinken abides by with the United States. "We can no longer block relationships with others, we are very closely connected because there is a special relationship between the United States and the Philippines. "And you can't categorize it as one or the other anymore, because it's so broad," adds Marcos.
Marcos and Blinken met with Secretary General Vic Rodriguez, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson and other US embassy officials in Malacañang.