‘Only negatives for China’ as Biden readies for trilateral Camp David rerun, this time with Marcos Jnr and Kishida

Name: Why is the Philippines aligning itself with the US after years of close China ties under Duterte
Uploaded: 2024-04-01T06:05:36.000Z
Duration: 15 min 4 s
Description: Why is the Philippines aligning itself with the US after years of close China ties under Duterte

Beijing’s growing military might, especially in the South China Sea, and Taiwan Strait concerns seen as driving forces behind summit

US strategic containment aims remain ‘rock solid’, analyst says, as another forecasts just negative reactions from China, varying only in degree

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The leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines are set to meet as China’s territorial disputes with the Philippines spark maritime confrontations. Photo: AFP

Alyssa Chen

Published: 2:05pm, 1 Apr 2024Updated: 4:53pm, 2 Apr 2024

US President Joe Biden will meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr in Washington later this month, in the latest American outreach effort as it tries to counter China’s influence.

The first US-Japan-Philippines summit will advance not only trilateral security, economic and technological ties but also their cooperation on “peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world”, the White House has said.

Analysts said the urgency driving the summit was China’s growing military might, especially in the South China Sea where its territorial disputes with the Philippines have sparked maritime face-offs, as well as shared concerns over tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

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Why is the Philippines aligning itself with the US after years of close China ties under Duterte

The meeting will also be an opportunity for the US and its two treaty allies to institutionalise their three-way defence arrangement, further deepening security ties as a counterweight to China, the observers said.

They expect Beijing to view the summit as another Camp David, the venue for the historic US-hosted trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea last August which also sparked closer security partnerships.

A wary Beijing closely watched that summit, and will be doing the same this time around, according to the analysts, with one expecting only negative reactions from China no matter what level of cooperation is reached.

Zhu Feng, executive dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, said Beijing might view the April 11 summit as not only a continuation and extension of the one in August, but also the latest attempt by the US to forge defence partnerships with an eye on China – such as Aukus with Australia and the United Kingdom.