MANILA: The Philippines’ ambassador to Washington said on Monday (Mar 3) he was “confident” the two countries’ military ties would remain strong under the Donald Trump administration, while also acknowledging the unravelling of the US-Ukraine relationship.
China and the Philippines have been involved in increasingly tense confrontations over reefs and waters in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims in almost its entirety despite a Hague ruling that its assertion has no basis.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said he believed that US backing in the disputed waterway and military assistance would continue, pointing to a US$336 million exemption granted amid a freeze on foreign spending.
“I think all of that will remain, I am confident that it will,” he told foreign journalists in Manila.
Romualdez said Trump’s approach was that of a businessman looking to invest in countries he believed could be valuable partners.
“We’re not there to ask for money and that’s it. We’re asking for investment because we want to be part of a partnership,” he said, adding that President Ferdinand Marcos wanted a face-to-face meeting with Trump in Washington as soon as feasible.
Romualdez pointed to a $2.5 billion bill for Philippines defence currently before the US Congress, saying there was strong bipartisan support for the legislation.
The veteran diplomat also floated the possibility of buying liquid natural gas from the United States, saying it had come up in discussions with Alaskan Senator Dan Sullivan.
“Many of our energy requirements could possibly use LNG as an alternative source of energy. So that’s one of the many things we’re trying to put together as part of our give-and-take, if you want to call it that,” he said.
Asked how fractious relations between the United States and its European allies over Russia’s war in Ukraine might affect the Philippines, Romualdez said the West was still on the same page when it came to the South China Sea.
“What is happening in the European theatre is different from what is happening here,” he said. “The interest of other countries in our part of the world remains the same,” he said.
“Trillions of dollars pass through the South China Sea and it’s clear that we don’t want any one country to dominate the area.”
However, Ukraine “will keep many of us awake because it could very well affect our part of the world”, Romualdez, Marcos’s cousin, said.
Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on Friday, heightening fears he intends to force Kyiv into a peace deal that favours Russia.
Romualdez said the hope was for a just and long-lasting peace.
“Presumably it will be fair, especially for Ukraine, which is the victim, so to speak,” he said.
“(Trump’s) objective of trying to achieve peace is noble. How we achieve it is what we have to watch.”
