On Saturday, The spokesman of President of Philippines said that the US President Joe Biden will have a trilateral telephone call with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos early Monday.
The three leaders are expected to discuss progress made on mutal cooperation, economic matters, and recent regional and global developments. The three countries have stepped up security cooperation to blunt China’s efforts to control most of the disputed South China Sea.
Marcos Jr. and his American and Japanese counterparts were expected to tackle developments in the Japan, Philippines and US (JAPHUS) trilateral agreement, a series of economic and security partnerships among the three countries that were formalized in April 2024.
Presidential spokesman Cesar Chavez said in a statement that the call was supposed to have been held on Sunday, but has been postponed because of the Los Angeles wildfires. Biden earlier cancelled a January 9-12 trip to Italy to focus instead on the federal response to the California wildfires.
The three countries also held a multilateral maritime cooperative activity in December last year to demonstrate joint commitment to safeguarding international waters and ensuring free navigation in the Indo-Pacific region in light of rising tensions in the South China Sea. Biden’s term ends on January 20 when Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next US leader.
