1 month ago
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(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump is acceptable to meet with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. connected Tuesday, with tariffs and information apt items connected the agenda.
Marcos' three-day sojourn shows the value of the confederation betwixt the pact partners astatine a clip erstwhile China is progressively assertive successful the South China Sea, wherever Manila and Beijing person clashed implicit the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal.
The sojourn besides comes arsenic the White House approaches a self-imposed deadline for new tariffs to spell into effect. On Aug. 1, the Philippines would beryllium taxable to a 20% tariff arsenic demanded by Trump unless the state tin onslaught a deal.
"I mean to convey to President Trump and his Cabinet officials that the Philippines is acceptable to negociate a bilateral commercialized woody that volition guarantee strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that lone the United States and the Philippines volition beryllium capable to instrumentality vantage of,” Marcos said Sunday erstwhile helium was departing for Washington, according to his office.
The Philippines is 1 of the oldest U.S. pact allies successful the Pacific, and Marcos is expected to reiterate the past of practice and the request for mutual defence cooperation successful the South China Sea.
The South China Sea has been an country of territorial struggle arsenic China has sought to exert much power successful the region, clashing with the Philippines and different adjacent nations, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
