Japan and Philippines Plan to Convey to Trump the Need for US Engagement in Asia

MANILA, Philippines — Japan and the Philippines will convey to President-elect Donald Trump the urgent need for the U.S. to remain committed to help uphold the rule of law in an Asian region where security concerns have become “increasingly severe,” Japan’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

The U.S., Japan and the Philippines have been building an alliance under outgoing President Joe Biden since last year to deal with China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy thrust has triggered concerns about the scale and depth of U.S. commitment to the region under his new term.

"We will approach the next U.S. administration to convey that constructive commitment of the United States in this region is important also for the United States itself,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in a news conference with his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, in Manila.

Iwaya said he was scheduled to attend Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration as one of Washington’s closest treaty allies in Asia along with the Philippines.

“Amid the increasingly severe strategic environment in the region, Japan places importance on our bilateral cooperation as well as on maintaining and strengthening trilateral cooperation between Japan, the Philippines and the United States,” Iwaya said.

An alarming spike in confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and other forces in the busy sea passage has set off fears of a major escalation that could draw in the United States, which has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to help defend Philippine forces if they come under an armed attack in the South China Sea.

“The issue over the South China Sea is a legitimate concern for the international community because it directly links to the regional peace and stability,” Iwaya said. "Japan strongly opposes any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force or build up tension in the region. We strongly ask for easing of tensions.”

Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the National Security Council in the Philippines, a top government body, said Tuesday that China was “pushing us to the wall” and warned that “all options are on the table” for Manila’s response, including new international lawsuits.

A large Chinese coast guard ship patrolled hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal i n recent days and then sailed toward the northwestern coast of the Philippines on Tuesday, coming as close as 77 nautical miles (143 kilometers), the Philippine coast guard said.

A Chinese official said in Beijing that his country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea is well established and its coast guard patrols are lawful and justified.

The Chinese government has repeatedly accused the Philippines and other rival claimant states including Vietnam and Malaysia of encroaching on what it says are “undisputed” Chinese territorial waters.

Manalo told reporters that the Philippines would raise China’s latest actions in a meeting on Thursday between Chinese and Philippine diplomats in the Chinese city of Xiamen.

The rival claimants have been holding talks, called the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism. for years to prevent the disputes from worsening into a major armed conflict.