President Bongbong Marcos has arrived in Washington, D.C., ahead of his trilateral summit with United States President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“This trilateral summit is probably one of the most momentous and historical moments in our history because of the fact that number one, it’s the first time that we will have a meeting with three leaders, two of which are obviously our allies, major allies, United States and Japan,” said Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez in a media briefing.
Marcos is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Biden before the summit. The two leaders are expected to tackle various issues including the economy, cybersecurity, maritime cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges.
“This meeting is not only important but is also significant in the sense that the President, who has always believed in multilateral approaches to any of the issues surrounding the challenges that we face in the Indo-Pacific Region is exactly what we are going to be doing here in Washington DC during the summit,” said Marcos.
The United States said that the three leaders may decide moving forward on how to institutionalize the trilateral leaders’ summit.
“There’s an awful lot of opportunity here between our three countries and the President wants to explore how we can deepen that, but again, just as critically, keep it going long term,” US National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby added.
