Biden wrote to Duterte to affirm 'strong' US-Philippines ties —envoy

US President Joe Biden has affirmed his country’s “strong” ties with the Philippines as he looks forward to meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte in the near future, Manila’s Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said Monday.

Romualdez told a Palace news conference that Biden had sent a letter to Duterte “to inform him about how strongly the relationship between the United States and the Philippines will continue.”

“And he hopes that he will be able to meet in person with the President at some point in time,” the ambassador said.

There is no scheduled meeting yet between Duterte and Biden, either in person or virtually. 

Biden, however, plans to talk to several leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ahead of the regional bloc’s summit in Brunei in November, according to Romualdez.

“We’re still waiting [for] word from them,” Romualdez said.

Since assuming the presidency in June 2016, Duterte’s foreign policy has so far been marked with increased engagements with Russia and China, two nations with economic and military rivalries with the US.

Duterte, meanwhile, moved for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which allows American soldiers to regularly train with their Filipino counterparts in the country.

Romualdez said the Philippines and the US already had negotiations to improve the terms of the agreement.

“They are hopeful that President Duterte will of course extend the VFA because that’s part of the Mutual Defense Treaty,” he said.

“America would like us to continue with it but it is also ready in case it won’t happen. They are going to be disappointed I’m sure but they would like us to continue to have a good relationship.”

The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1946 when the US ended its 48-year occupation of the Southeast Asian archipelago. —KBK, GMA News