AS announced by the United States government last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be meeting with their Philippine counterparts in Washington District of Columbia (DC) on Tuesday.
Blinken and Austin are set to have a 2 + 2 ministerial dialogue with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Carlito Galvez, Jr.
According to the US Government, the US will be reaffirming their ironclad commitment to their alliance with the Philippines in the scheduled meeting.
This comes ahead of the largest joint military exercise the 2 countries is set to hold later on this month after 4 additional US Military bases were agreed to be established in the Philippines under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the 2 allies.
It can be noted that from the April 11 – 28, more than 17,600 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the US Military will participate in Balikatan 2023 – an annual bilateral exercise between the Philippines and the US.
On the other hand, many Filipinos have expressed doubt over the recent turn of events especially over the 4 additional EDCA sites, as they question whether or not this will put the Philippines in harm’s way considering the sites’ locations and the increasing tensions between China and Taiwan.
