Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo believes Manila’s ties with the United States and the trilateral partnership with Japan will continue to be robust — despite what some say is the threat of a more transactional approach to alliances by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We’re very committed to the trilateral arrangement with the United States,” the Philippines’ top diplomat said in a recent interview with The Japan Times in Manila.
Referring to his Jan. 22 phone call with U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio, Manalo said the talks, in which the two sides agreed on a possible meeting in “the near future” between Trump and his counterpart, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., “reinforced in many ways our ongoing cooperation with the United States” going back to the previous administration and “even the first Trump administration.”
