What does the Philippines president Marcos Jr’s trip to the US mean as tensions rise with China?

United States president Joe Biden is hosting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr of the Philippines for White House talks on Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy’s harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. In contrast to his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who led the Southeast Asian country towards Beijing, Marcos Jr, who was elected in May 2022, is making his maiden trip to the White House. China is the largest commercial partner of the Philippines. Despite the fact that Marcos Jr was rewarded with a state visit to Beijing in January this year, Manila is growing more and more uneasy about Beijing’s increasingly assertive claim to nearly the whole South China Sea. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the visit and said Biden and Marcos Jr will discuss the US’s “ironclad commitment” to defence in the area as well as “efforts to uphold international law and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.” The two sides are expected to discuss the security situation and come out with new economic, education, climate and other initiatives as part of Marcos’ four-day visit to Washington, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Philippines leans towards the US Monday’s Oval Office meeting is the latest high-level diplomacy with Pacific leaders by Biden as his administration contends with increased military and economic assertiveness by China and worries about North Korea’s nuclear program. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the visit, said Biden administration officials are looking to redevelop “habits of alliance building” with the Philippines as aspects of the historically complicated relationship have “atrophied” over the years. The meeting follows US vice president Kamala Harris’s November 2022 trip to the Philippines and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s February 2018 meeting with Ferdinand Marcos Jr, which resulted in an agreement to grant the US access to more Philippine military bases and drew criticism from Beijing. The newly expanded EDCA means the US will have access to nine bases in the Philippines, including three on the northern island of Luzon, which lies just 300km (186 miles) from Taiwan, one of the region’s major flashpoints. In a statement released in March, a representative of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said: “It is plain and simple that those moves are a part of the US efforts to encircle and contain China. To bundle the Philippines into the chariots of geopolitical strife will seriously harm Philippine national interests and endanger regional peace and stability.” Foreign policy expert Roland Simbulan told Al Jazeera that the Philippines is a “bone of contention” for China and the US due to its strategic location dividing the South China Sea and the Pacific. “The rival powers are competing for influence and control over maritime trade routes, fishing grounds, offshore mineral and gas resources, as well as to secure military dominance,” he said. However, joint military drills Balikatan with  Marcos Jr in  charge this year were a hint that relations  between  Manila  and  Washington  have warmed  up  once more.   China angers Philippines The drills, which were completed on 28 April, had 12,200 US soldiers, making them the largest ever held. “The Balikatan Exercise enhances both the AFP (Armes Forces of the Philippines) and the United States Armed Forces’ tactics, techniques, and procedures across a wide range of military operations. It increases our ability to work together effectively and efficiently in response to various crisis situations,” AFP spokesperson Colonel Medel Aguilar said in a statement released by the US Embassy ahead of the drills. China expressed its anger at the closer ties by holding drills this year with Cambodia and is preparing to start some with Singapore. The US, according to the Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian, wants to use the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) of 2014 agreement to further its own “anti-China agenda” and “interfere in the situation across the Taiwan strait.” [caption id=“attachment_12534212” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The long-time treaty allies are holding their largest joint military exercises that are part of a show of American firepower that has alarmed China. AP[/caption] Additionally, he made a pointed reference to the numerous Filipino workers in Taiwan. “The Philippines is advised to unequivocally oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ rather than stoking the fire by offering the US access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait, if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs (overseas foreign workers),” he said. As the Philippines erupted in anger over what they perceived to be a threat against their countrymen, the US claimed that EDCA had nothing to do with Taiwan. China then moved to contain the situation by claiming that Huang had been misquoted and publishing the complete text of his remarks. While acknowledging that he was “a little surprised” by what had been said, Marcos Jr attempted to minimise the situation. Shortly after, when Qin Gang, the foreign minister of China, paid a visit to the Philippines, the president spoke of improving “lines of communication” with Beijing to prevent conflict. Moreover, China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard patrols and chasing away fishermen in waters close to Philippine shores but which Beijing claims as its own. Increased Chinese harassment of vessels in the South China Sea has added another dimension to the visit. On 23 April, journalists from AP and other outlets were aboard the Philippine coast guard’s BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal when a Chinese coast guard ship blocked the Philippine patrol vessel steaming into the disputed shoal. [caption id=“attachment_12534242” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessel BRP Malapascua, left, goes near the Philippine navy ship BRP Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal locally known as Ayungin Shoal at the South China Sea. AP[/caption] The Philippines has filed more than 200 diplomatic protests against China since last year, at least 77 since Marcos took office in June. The US too is uneasy about China’s military ambitions, not only in the South China Sea but also over self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Saturday called media reporting on the encounters a “stark reminder” of Chinese “harassment and intimidation of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within their exclusive economic zone. We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct.” US-Philippines relations The American presence in the Philippines is quite complicated since the country was a US colony for 48 years.   According to experts, the unbalanced relationship between the two nations that came from American colonial control between 1898 and 1946 is still present today. “The Philippines is economically dependent on its trade relations with the United States,” says Vicente Rafael, a history professor at the University of Washington told TIME magazine. “The military is totally dependent on the US for training, second-hand weapons, and advice.” Since assuming control of the Philippines from Spain at the turn of the 20th century, the US has had a strategic military relationship with the Philippines. Furthermore, the Philippines once hosted some of the largest US military installations in the area, including Subic Bay, which has a view of the South China Sea. In an effort to restore democracy in the Philippines following the widespread corruption and abuses of the martial law era, such bases were shut down in 1992. Since that time, US troops have visited the islands on a rotating basis while utilising domestic military infrastructure in accordance with the EDCA agreement. The deal also provides some comfort to the Philippines, when Beijing acquired Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and took its issue to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The court ultimately determined that China’s claim to the South China Sea lacked legal support, but Beijing disregarded the decision and proceeded to increase its military footprint, including in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines. Close US-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos took office. Initially, the Philippines President had seemed intent on following the path of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who pursued closer ties with China. Before Marcos took office last year, Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the White House National Security Council, acknowledged that “historical considerations” could present “challenges” to the relationship with Marcos Jr It was an oblique reference to long-standing litigation in the United States against the estate of his father, Ferdinand Marcos. A US appeals court in 1996 upheld damages of about $2 billion against Ferdinand Marcos’ estate for the torture and killings of thousands of Filipinos. The court upheld a 1994 verdict of a jury in Hawaii, where he fled after being forced from power in 1986. He died there in 1989. Biden and Macros met in September during the UN General Assembly, where the US president acknowledged the two countries’ sometimes “rocky” past. During their private meeting, Biden stressed to Marcos his desire to improve relations and asked Marcos how the administration could “fulfil your dreams and hopes” for that, according to the senior administration official. Marcos is also slated to visit the Pentagon, meeting Cabinet members and business leaders and make remarks at a Washington think-tank during the visit. With inputs from AP Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._