President Marcos Jr treads fine line with China as Philippines deepens ties with US, Japan

Manila: Amid growing tensions in the South China Sea between Beijing and Manila, the presidents of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines have formed an unprecedented level of collaboration to counter China, reported Al Jazeera.

According to Al Jazeera, while US President Joe Biden and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have stressed the security aspects of their cooperation, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has highlighted its potential economic rewards, touting the partnership with promised investments of some USD 100bn as a friendship with benefits.

At the televised opening of the summit on April 11, Biden told the other two leaders: "I want to be clear. The United States' defence commitments to Japan and the Philippines are ironclad. Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea will invoke our Mutual Defence Treaty," reported Al Jazeera.

Only afterwards did Biden discuss how the US government would help the Philippines develop key economic areas such as its semiconductor supply chain, and telecommunications and critical infrastructure including ports, railways and agriculture.

In Manila, though, the Presidential Communications Office downplayed the security aspect of the concluded summit, which had expressed "serious concerns about the People's Republic of China's (PRC) dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea".

Instead, its news releases dwell on US and Japan's expressions of a "strong commitment of support for the economic prosperity of the Philippines".

The South China Sea, which "functions as the throat of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans," places the Philippines in a key location, according to the Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs, a private research think tank located in Manila.

As per the Institute, "more than half of the world's annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through these choke points, and a third of all maritime traffic worldwide" passes through the South China Sea, which China claims sovereignty over almost entirely.

It is estimated that almost two thirds of South Korea's energy supplies, almost 60 per cent of Japan's and Taiwan's energy supplies, and 80 per cent of China's imports of crude oil pass via the waters that the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam also partially claim.