TO further “deepen” ties between the Philippines and the United States, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. met with United States National Security Advisor John Bolton in December.
According to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., the two officials recognized the role of their nations’ alliance in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
This is the first time Locsin met with Bolton since the former became the Philippines’s top diplomat.
Locsin said the meeting was “vastly enlightening, frank [and] wide ranging, yet sharply focused on the key issues.”
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel G. Romualdez, likewise, accompanied the Foreign Affairs chief in the meeting.
The meeting comes a week after the Department of National Defense called for the review of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the US and the Philippines.
Previously, Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana called for the MDT’s review to see if it is still relevant to the Philippines’s “national interest.”
Former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja agreed that the 1951 MDT must undergo a reassessment to determine if the pact is still attuned to current regional and global dynamics.
“For the Philippines, the review will provide the opportunity to reexamine and clarify the degree and depth of US commitment to defend us, including the area of coverage of the Treaty,” Baja told the Philippine News Agency.
Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA