Ranking diplomats from the Philippines, the United States and Japan met in Tokyo Thursday to conduct talks in preparation for the upcoming trilateral meeting among the three countries’ leaders amid threats to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.
According to the White House, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, US Deputy State Secretary Kurt Campbell and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Okano Masataka met to follow through the series of senior-level engagements already held by the three countries over the past year.

During the meeting, the three diplomats reiterated their collective commitment to maintaining peace and security in the region, particularly in the South China and the East China Seas.
Lazaro, Campbell and Masataka also discussed trilateral cooperation in defense and security, economic security and resilience, the international law of the sea and the freedom of navigation and people-to-people ties.
The most important part of their discussion was to firm up plans for the summit in Washington on April 11 among President Marcos, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Biden will host his two counterparts at the White House to talk about promotion of inclusive growth and emerging technologies, advancing clean energy supply chains and climate cooperation.