US President Joe Biden talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos at the White House on May 1. Photo: Reuters

In efforts to promote inclusive and broad-based prosperity, invest in the clean energy transition and the fight against climate change, uphold international peace and stability, and ensure respect for human rights and the rule of law, the United States and the Philippines will remain the closest of allies, according to the joint statement.

President Biden reaffirms the United States’ ironclad alliance commitments to the Philippines, underscoring that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea (called the East Sea in Vietnam) would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

The joint statement emphasizes the leaders note the ruling of the 2016 arbitral tribunal, constituted pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They affirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity.

They welcome the Quad’s commitment to support a peaceful and stable, rules-based region with ASEAN at the center, through its efforts to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, says the joint statement.