US/Japan/Philippines Trilateral Leaders' Summit Underway

President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are shortly due to meet at the White House for a first-ever trilateral leaders’ summit.

• The summit, designed to “enhance economic and energy security, bolster maritime cooperation, invest in critical infrastructure, and deepen people-to-people ties,” is widely viewed as a format to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
• A senior Biden administration official told reporters in a briefing, the leaders will announce, "high-impact infrastructure projects, including ports, rail, clean energy, semiconductors, supply chains, and other forms of connectivity in the Philippines.”
• Responsible Statecraft notes: “As the trio works to bolster security in the region, they’ll face the daunting task of balancing military efforts with diplomatic overtures needed to keep tensions with China in check.”
• Mike Mochizuki at George Washington University said that “focus on military deterrence is likely to cause China and North Korea to then respond in such a way [as] to beef up their security interests.”
• On China, the Biden admin official said: “President Marcos is coming under pressure from the PRC’s aggressive tactics in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone… we absolutely expect the South China Sea to come up in tomorrow’s trilateral meeting. It is one of the reasons for the meeting... You will also see in our trilateral joint statement some very strong language on our unity on the South China Sea.”
• Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in response to the summit: “We oppose cobbling together exclusive groupings and stoking bloc confrontation in the region.”