Obama to visit Philippines in last leg of four-country Asian tour

Manila: United States President Barrack Obama is expected to visit the Philippines in April, the US Embassy said quoting a statement issued by the US State Department.

Obama will fly to the Philippines at the end of the US leader’s four-country tour of East Asia following visits to Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia.

“The President will then travel to the Philippines, the fifth Asian treaty ally he will have visited during his presidency. He will meet with President Benigno Aquino III to highlight our economic and security cooperation, including through the modernisation of our defence alliance, efforts to expand economic ties and spark economic growth through the Partnership for Growth, and through our deep and enduring people-to-people ties,” the White House statement said.

For its part, the palace in Manila confirmed that Obama would visit the country in April.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma said the visit by the charismatic American leader is expected to provide fresh impetus to relations between Manila and Washington.

Ties between the two countries had witnessed renewed vigour as Asia confronts new challenges in long term security and territorial integrity.

Coloma, during a press briefing Thursday said an important part of Obama’s visit to Manila will be his meeting with Aquino where the two leaders are expected “to discuss ways to further strengthen enduring alliance.”

“President Obama’s visit will provide a new momentum to Philippine-US relations and strengthen the partnerships of the two nations in many areas,” he added.

Obama’s visit to the Philippines and other countries in East Asia come at a time when China is increasingly being seen as a threat to amity and good relations among countries in that part of the continent.

China had been more assertive of its territorial claims and the US, in response, had been shifting more of its strategic assets to East Asia to counter this threat.

Obama had declared in 2012 its “pivot Asia” doctrine as the US gradually shifts focus from containing security concerns in Europe and the Middle East to the East Asia.

The Philippines and the US had been boosting its ties even prior to the pivot Asia with implementation of plans for strengthening Philippine military assets as well as US military forces in the area.

Over the past three years, the Philippines has boosted its maritime combat capabilities with the addition of capital vessels to its fleet, including two frigates bought from the US, troop-carrying ships as well as patrol vessels.

The Philippines, a former US colony, had been a traditional ally of the US.

According to the State Department statement, Obama will travel to Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines in late April “as part of his ongoing commitment to increase US diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Obama’s visit had originally been scheduled on an earlier date last year, but it was cancelled as the US government attends to domestic economic concerns.