WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US President Joe Biden will hold the
first three-way summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan next
month, the White House said Monday, as the United States boosts alliances
against China.

Biden's meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on April 11 is the latest in
a series of meeting with Asia-Pacific allies.

It also comes against a backdrop of clashes between Philippines and Chinese
vessels in the South China Sea, where the countries have contested maritime
claims.

"The leaders will advance a trilateral partnership built on deep historical
ties of friendship" including a "shared vision for a free and open Indo-
Pacific," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Biden will later hold a separate bilateral meeting with Marcos to "reaffirm
the ironclad alliance" with the Philippines, she said.

Kishida will be at the White House for a state visit the day before, which
had already been announced.

Japan believes the talks will boost a "free and open international order
based on the rules of law," chief government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi
said.

"With the Japan-US alliance as the linchpin, we believe that deepening
cooperation with like-minded countries like the Philippines in a wide range
of areas will be essential to maintaining the peace and prosperity of this
region," he told reporters.

The US is redoubling efforts to improve longstanding ties with regional
allies such as Tokyo and Manila, in an effort to counterbalance an
increasingly aggressive China.

The announcement of the three-way summit came as US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken was heading to Manila, a trip that the State Department said would
reaffirm America's "unwavering commitment" to the Philippines.

Beijing recently accused Washington of using the Philippines as a "pawn" in
the dispute over the South China Sea.

Japan and the Philippines meanwhile said during a visit by Kishida in
November that they would begin negotiations for a defense pact that would
allow them to deploy troops on each other's territory.

Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines during World War II, but the two
countries have since grown closer due to trade and investment, and more
recently, to counter China's assertiveness in the region.

Biden has also increasingly turned to the three-way summit format to build US
alliances.

In August he hosted Japan's Kishida and South Korea's president Yoon Suk Yeol
at his Camp David presidential retreat, in a bid to bring the two US allies
closer after years of tensions.

Biden held a landmark summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California
in November in a bid to prevent conflict between the two superpowers but
relations remain tense.