Courtesy: PCO
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said his meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris centered on the Philippine assessment on the situation in the West Philippines Sea (WPS), as the country is exerting all efforts to maintain peace in the region.
“We had a meeting with Vice-President Kamala Harris before the beginning of the APEC conference and… she was very interested to know what our assessment was on the situation in the West Philippines Sea, and I just went through the narrative of … what had happened in the past few months,” President Marcos said on Thursday.
“And we tried to discuss some of the ways forward and I think that generally speaking, especially after my meeting with President Xi, which I’m going to have some time today. After that, we will put together the ways forward,” he added.
President Marcos stressed the Philippines continuously tries to maintain the peace in the region with the help of the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine military, and the entire government.
President Marcos said he will get the view of President Xi during the meeting and discuss on what can be done “to bring down the temperature, to not escalate the situation in the West Philippine Sea.”
“And we (with President Xi) will put all of these together so as we’ll be able to strategize for the near future on what the Philippines’ role will be or what is the proper Philippines’ role in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
During the President’s meeting with Harris, the two leaders reaffirmed the strength of the Philippine-US alliance and reiterated their shared commitment to uphold international rules and norms, including in the South China Sea.
Wednesday’s meeting was the fifth between the US Vice President and Marcos. They met previously when Harris visited Manila in November 2022; the Vice President hosting President Marcos at the Naval Observatory in May 2023; a bilateral meeting on the margins of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta in September 2023; and a trilateral meeting with Japan Prime Minister Kishida in Jakarta in September 2023.
