• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed the Philippines that the US would come to its aid if it was attacked.
• The Philippines is in the centre of the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China.
• Vice President Joe Biden has invited Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to visit the United States.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed the Philippines that the US would come to its aid if it was attacked in the South China Sea, attempting to ease fears about the scope of the US commitment to a mutual defence pact.

Blinken claimed a 70-year-old security treaty with the Philippines was “ironclad” during discussions in Manila dominated by discussion of simmering US-China tensions over US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s travel to Taiwan.

“An armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels and aircraft will invoke US mutual defense commitments under that treaty,” Blinken said at a press conference.

“The Philippines is an irreplaceable friend, partner, and ally to the United States.”
Blinken was the highest-ranking US official to meet incoming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the late strongman whom Washington assisted in fleeing to exile in Hawaii following the 1986 “people power” revolt that ended his two-decade dictatorship.

In his opening comments to Blinken, Marcos attempted to minimize the diplomatic spat over Taiwan, saying that Pelosi’s visit  “did not raise the intensity” of an already explosive situation.

“We have been at that level for a good while, but we have sort of got used to the idea,” Marcos said.

The Philippines is in the centre of the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China, and Marcos confronts a difficult task in balancing connections between the two great countries.

He will also face local pressure to confront China in the South China Sea without upsetting the Chinese authorities.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s overtures to China, as well as his famed anti-US rhetoric and threats to decrease their military ties, strained US-Philippine relations.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said on Saturday that President Joe Biden had invited Marcos to Washington and that all parties were working on a suitable date.

Marcos has not visited the United States in over a decade, owing largely to a contempt of court order for his refusal to cooperate with a Hawaii court, which ordered the Marcos family in 1995 to return $2 billion in missing state wealth to victims of abuses committed by the state during his father’s rule.

Marcos Jr. and his mother, Imelda, risk a $353 million penalties as well.

According to the US embassy in Manila, heads of state enjoy diplomatic immunity.

Manalo said Washington was an essential ally, but that when it comes to adjacent Taiwan, the Philippines  “looks at the big powers to help calm the waters.”

“We can ill afford any further escalation of tensions,” he warned.

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