Biden Meets With Philippines President Marco Amid Tension With China Transcript

The President, welcome back to the White House. We were talking on the way over. It’s been a while since you’ve been here.

Yes, sir.

You were here with President Reagan and your father, and we welcome you back. And when we met in New York last year, you told me that the strong alliance has to continue, quote and this was your phrase, “to evolve as we face the challenges of this new century.” And we are facing new challenges. And I can’t think of any better partner to have than you. I couldn’t agree more that we have to, this relationship has to continue to evolve and together we’re tackling climate change. We’re accelerating our country’s transition to clean energy, and we’re standing up for our shared democratic values and workers’ rights as the rule of law. And together we’re deepen in our economic cooperation, which is going to continue to deepen, I think to be beneficial.

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And we’re going to announce today that I’m sending a first of its kind presidential trade and investment mission to the Philippines. We talked about that very briefly.

Yes, sir.

Up in New York. And the United States also remains iron clad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea. And we’re going to continue to support the Philippines military modernization goals. Mr. President, our countries not only share a strong partnership, we share a deep friendship, one that has been enriched by millions of Filipino Americans in the communities all across the United States of America. And so I want to thank you again for being here. I look forward to our conversation today, and I invite you to make any comments you’d like. The floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mr. President and I, as you say, in the difficult times that we are facing ahead of us, we need to find many ways to strengthen our alliances and our partnership in the face of the new economy that we are facing post pandemic. Beyond that, there are also the issues, geopolitical issues that have made the region where the Philippines is, possibly arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now. And so it is only natural that for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world, to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions.

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So I welcome very much the opportunity to come here, to visit with you in the White House and to discuss all these terribly important issues. We have many things that are new that need to be assessed. And again, our role as partners in our worldview of what we are hoping for the future of peace, not only in the Asia-Pacific and in the Pacific region, but in the whole world. So thank you once again for this opportunity, Mr. President.

Thank you. And I’m optimistic.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.