MANILA, Philippines — While the Philippines and United States are seeking to work with other countries, Washington clarified that setting up a new “Quad” or security mechanism in the Indo Pacific is not in their plans.
“I think what we are trying to do is, again, in every way possible demonstrate the strength and credibility of America’s commitment to the Indo Pacific region and to our allies, partners, and friends—including, of course, our treaty ally, the Philippines,” Kritenbrink said in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.
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Washington has several treaty allies in the region aside from the Philippines and these include Japan and South Korea.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is currently in Washington DC for an official working visit, capping off his meeting with US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, and several members of the cabinet. As it has been years since a Philippine president visited the US, Kritenbrink said Marcos Jr.’s trip amid renewed security and defense commitments was “truly historic and represents a milestone for the bilateral alliance.”
Both Biden and Marcos Jr. also expressed their “strong support” for ASEAN Centrality and welcomed efforts of the Quad, which is an existing security dialogue between the US, Australia, India and Japan. Sen. Francis Tolentino earlier this year proposed of creating a similar defense mechanism with Washington, Tokyo and Canberra in the picture.
However, Kritenbirk emphasized that the US is “not looking to establish any new formal mechanisms in the Indo Pacific at this point.”
“It’s important to identify synergies between likeminded partners and explore ways in which informal cooperation might be conducted might be conducted on a trileral or other basis,” Kritenbirk said.
Biden and Marcos Jr. reiterated previous statements of other high-level officials on exploring “trilateral modes of cooperation” with Japan and Australia, although nothing specific has been made public yet.