2024: A banner year for U.S.-Phl relations

The year about to end has seen relations between the Philippines and the United States achieve significant milestones through elevated partnerships.

No less than US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson recognized 2024 as a glorious year for the bilateral relations between the two nations, which have been traditional allies for decades.

“The last 12 months of US-Philippine relations have given us much to celebrate! 2024 was a banner year for our relationship as friends, partners, and allies,” Carlson told reporters in a recent roundtable meeting with diplomatic beat reporters at her residence in Makati City.

At the top of the list of achievements in US-Philippines relations was the historic Trilateral Leaders’ Summit between President Joe Biden and President Ferdinand Marcos, and then-Japanese Prime Minister Kishida at the White House in April.

During that meeting, the three leaders committed to several ambitious initiatives, including the establishment of the Luzon Economic Corridor, which is expected to accelerate investments in critical sectors on the country’s main island.

The three countries committed to working together to support investments in infrastructure between Subic, Clark, Manila, and Batangas to accelerate high-growth sectors that will drive growth for decades to come — in agribusiness, semiconductors, ICT, and more.

The three leaders also committed to increasing cooperation in cyber and emerging technologies, semiconductor workforce development, and clean energy technologies.

They also reaffirmed their shared commitment to international law and a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea, a portion of the vast South China Sea, both being claimed by the People’s Republic of China.

2+2 Ministerial Dialogue

The three nations also conducted a trilateral maritime security meeting in Tokyo earlier in the month, where they discussed opportunities to strengthen future trilateral cooperation and engagement with other partners through maritime cooperative activities, combined training, and coast guard capacity building.

This year also saw the inauguration of the first-ever 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III with their Filipino counterparts, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.

Carlson described the meeting as “challenging,” stressing that it was difficult to find time on the schedule to get Blinken and the Secretary in the same room when they were both in Washington, DC.

“Getting them to Manila to meet in person with their counterparts is a sign of just how important the United States views our alliance with the Philippines,” she said.