Biden Hosts First Summit with Leaders of Japan, Philippines as China Threat Looms

WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on April 11 hosted the first-ever trilateral summit meeting between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.

The primary goal of the summit was to strengthen defense ties between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines in the face of China’s more aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific.

President Biden called the meeting a “new era of partnership” and said that ”a great deal of history in our world will be written in the Indo-Pacific in the coming years.”

At the trilateral summit, all three states committed to closer coordination and engagement in the South China Sea. The three leaders also announced new steps to strengthen energy security, economic and maritime cooperation, technological and cybersecurity partnerships, and joint investments in critical infrastructure.

“In the midst of the compound crisis faced by the global community, multi-layered cooperation between allies and like-minded countries is essential if we are to maintain and bolster a free and open international order based on the rule of law,” Mr. Kishida said during the summit.

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