Marcos, Biden, Ishiba trilateral phone call set on Jan. 12 – Palace

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. and American President Joe Biden (FILE PHOTOS)

MANILA, Philippines —  President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos is scheduled for a trilateral phone call with United States President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru over the weekend.

In a Viber message to reporters on Thursday, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez said the trilateral phone call will be on January 12.

The agenda of the upcoming discussion was not disclosed.

In April 2024, Marcos, Biden, and then- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a trilateral summit in Washington where they asked China to stop the “dangerous and coercive use of [its] Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels” in the South China Sea, calling out its “dangerous and aggressive behavior’’ in the strategic waterway.

Biden also guaranteed in the meeting that any attack on a Philippine aircraft, vessel, or armed forces in the South China Sea will invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty.

He also said that Washington’s defense commitments to the two Asian countries are “ironclad.”

Beijing, however, criticized the trilateral summit and defended its actions in the South China Sea as “lawful.”