UNITED STATES Economy, security, diplomacy: Marcos consolidates the alliance with Washington. And irritates Beijing

The Philippine leader’s four-day official visit to the United States has concluded. The “iron alliance” in a military code that was signed in 1951 is reactivated. Manila tries to reassure China about the concession of new bases to the US With Tokyo and Seoul, the objective is to create a containment network.

Milan () – The four-day official visit to the United States ended yesterday, the first by a Philippine president in a decade, which began with a meeting in Washington on May 1 with his American counterpart Joe Biden. Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos – who died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 three years after the peaceful revolution in February – had already been to the US in the fall of last year to attend the meeting of the Assembly General of the UN The trip is part of a series of missions abroad, including one in January to the People’s Republic of China, with which Marcos tries to put Manila back at the center of regional diplomacy, but also to secure economic and strategic support.

He held numerous meetings with prominent members of the US administration, parliamentarians, businessmen and analysts. In the face-to-face meeting with his Filipino counterpart, Biden confirmed the “ironclad” alliance with Manila as well as the validity in all its aspects of the security pact signed by both countries in 1951. Despite the fluctuating relations, that have cooled off especially in the last thirty years due to the decision of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, to privilege relations with Beijing, that pact is still fully in force in its updated versions.

Undoubtedly, Marcos’s initiative, whose objective was to strengthen the strategic alliance with Washington, has also served to respond to the concerns, both internal and external, of those who fearfully observe the confrontation that has been taking place for some time with China. Indeed, Beijing has long applied a “fait accompli” policy in the waters of the exclusive economic zone and in the limit of the territorial waters of the archipelago, ignoring Manila’s sovereignty claims and a judgment against it by the Court. of International Arbitration.

Both during his trip to China last January and in his statements in recent days, Marcos Jr. has tried to reassure the Chinese leaders that the restored harmony with the United States is not for offensive purposes. And, at the same time, about the possibility of missiles and strategic weapons being deployed on his territory in the event of a confrontation between China and Taiwan.

In a speech he delivered yesterday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the US capital, Marcos once again insisted on the Philippine interest in not fueling tensions and that Washington has not asked Manila for direct military support in the event of war. Support that, moreover, is not provided for in the bilateral agreements, the last of which was signed in 2014 for mutual military assistance, but which could be influenced by the massive presence of Filipino immigrants in Taiwan and the need to evacuate them or place them at risk. except.

The opening in February of four more Philippine military bases for US military use sparked strong protests from China. Latent tensions in a context in which Manila not only takes into account Washington, but also Tokyo and Seoul to create a containment and deterrence network with respect to Beijing under US supervision.