US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the Philippines on August 6 to meet President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as well as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Sec. Enrique Manalo.
The US Embassy in the Philippines made the announcement on Friday night and was confirmed by the DFA in its own Facebook post.
According to Department of States spokesman Ned Price, Blinken will first go to Cambodia to participate in the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum from August 3 to 5.
He will then fly to the Philippines, where he is expected to discuss bilateral efforts with Marcos and Manalo to strengthen the alliance of the two countries.
Bilateral efforts include increased cooperation on energy, trade, and investment, advancing our shared democratic values, and pandemic recovery, Price said.
Meanwhile, DFA said Blinken will meet Manalo to also broaden the US-Philippines cooperation "in the economic sphere, in the context of both countries’ efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and other regional and global challenges."
Blinken’s visit will be the first for a US State Secretary since former Secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit in March 2019.
In June 2022, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the department’s second highest official, also paid a visit on the President.