WASHINGTON has reaffirmed its commitment to the Philippines and to a shared vision of a peaceful and secure Indo-Pacific region, following US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s meeting with Southeast Asian defense ministers.

“Secretary Hegseth’s leadership of the Department of War and his frequent engagements with our Southeast Asian partners demonstrate the Trump administration’s determination to strengthen alliances, deepen regional cooperation, and ensure that peace is backed by strength,” US Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Hegseth was in Cebu, in the central Philippines, from Oct. 27 to 29 for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus, a recurring forum that convenes the defense chiefs of ASEAN’s 10 member states and eight dialogue partners, including the United States. Convened since 2010, the ADMM-Plus format places Washington in the same regular defense-ministerial setting as its fellow dialogue partners — China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. At the meeting, he proposed an “ambitious” US-ASEAN defense framework that will guide joint initiatives in the coming years; the framework’s specific initiatives and timelines have yet to be detailed.

The United States and the Philippines have been treaty allies since the signing of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which commits each side to respond to an armed attack on the other in the Pacific area in accordance with its constitutional processes. The alliance was later deepened through the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows US forces to rotate through agreed locations in Philippine military facilities.

Beyond security ties, the US Embassy emphasized the need for an equally strong economic partnership with Manila, noting that it supports the Philippines’ economic development and believes reciprocal, mutually beneficial trade is essential to shared prosperity.

On Sunday, Ambassador Lipton said in a post on Facebook that the SelectUSA program — a US government initiative that promotes foreign direct investment into the United States — had brought next-generation Filipino business leaders and top US businesses together for massive growth. The Filipino businesspeople taking part included Hans “Chico” Sy, Jr., president of SM Engineering Design and Development Corporation, and Mariana E. Zobel de Ayala, director of Globe Telecom — representatives of the SM and Ayala families, whose groups rank among the Philippines’ largest conglomerates.

“We’re working hard to bring HUGE investments to the US and the Philippines!” the envoy concluded.

— Francessca S. Abalos, BusinessWorld

Source: BusinessWorld