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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met Thursday with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines as the U.S. deepens ties with an emerging regional group that Pentagon officials have privately nicknamed, the “Squad.”
A “foreign actor” is likely behind deepfake content that made Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sound like he’s urging military action against China, according to his communications office.
“Our alliances are America’s greatest asset,” President Joe Biden said in a joint press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Wednesday, a day before hosting a historic first trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines on Thursday. Indeed, the U.S. has ramped up its partnership-building, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, as it seems to seek to establish a countervailing force to China’s growing influence and assertiveness in the region.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte accused the U.S. of inflaming tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, while criticizing his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of supposedly doing America’s bidding.
For years, China has been testing the limits of its aggression in the South China Sea to see how much it can push before someone, meaningfully, pushes back. It’s a dangerous game that recently left three Philippine Navy personnel injured after their resupply ship to the Second Thomas Shoal—an atoll at the center of disputes over rival territorial claims of the all-important waterway through which a third of the world’s trade passes—was surrounded and fired upon with a water cannon by Chinese coast guard and militia vessels.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a White House summit next month amid growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, provocative Chinese action in the South China Sea and differences over a Japanese company’s plan to buy an iconic American steel company.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.—the son and namesake of the Philippines’ late dictator—has floated the idea of holding a national vote to amend the Southeast Asian country’s constitution at the same time as its upcoming midterm elections in 2025.
A Philippine televangelist and “spiritual adviser” to former President Rodrigo Duterte wanted by the FBI said he has gone into hiding, accusing officials in the U.S. and Philippines of seeking to “eliminate” him.