The United States (US) and the Philippines will hold the ninth Bilateral Strategic Dialogue (BSD) from Nov. 15 to 16 in Washington, D.C., the US Embassy in the Philippines announced.
The event will be carried out both in person and virtually. It will be the first BSD to be held in the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
"Since January 2011, the BSD has brought together senior leaders to discuss cooperation on defense, economics, rule of law, and regional diplomacy between the United States and the Philippines," the Embassy said in a statement Friday, Nov. 12.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will co-chair the robust discussions regarding work across the broad spectrum of US-Philippine cooperation alongside Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner.
US representatives will be joined by their counterparts from the Philippine government, Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez and Department of National Defense Undersecretary Cardozo Luna.
In addition to Assistant Secretaries Kritenbrink and Ratner, the US delegation will include senior leadership from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and the United States Agency for International Department (USAID).
The most recent BSD was held in Manila from July 15 ro 16, 2019. The last BSD to be held in Washington, D.C. took place in November 2017.