US VP Harris to visit Philippines next month

US Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the Philippines in November to help strengthen the ties between the two nations, the White House said on Friday.
 
Harris will first go to Bangkok for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting on November 18-19 before heading to Manila.
 
“In the Philippines, she will meet with government leaders and civil society representatives. Her visit will re-affirm and strengthen the U.S.-Philippines Alliance and underscore the breadth of our cooperation as friends, partners, and allies,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
 
She will be accompanied by her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who headed the US delegation at President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s inauguration on June 30.
 
The announcement of Harris’ upcoming visit comes after US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said that the State Department had informed US Congress to make $100 million in foreign military financing available to the Philippines following Manila’s cancellation of a billion-peso helicopter deal with Russia.
 
The military aid may be used to acquire 12 upgraded heavy-lift Sikorsky helicopters after the Philippines terminated a contract to purchase 16 Russian aircraft, Manila’s envoy to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said on Tuesday.
 
Romualdez said the Philippines is looking into converting a dozen of the 36 Sikorsky aircraft previously ordered by the Philippine government into Poland-manufactured heavy-lift helicopters intended for disaster response and emergencies.
 
The US, a long-time treaty ally of the Philippines, is the country’s biggest supplier of military hardware and arms.
 
They are bound by a 1951 defense treaty that calls on the US to come to the Philippines’ aid in the event of an armed attack. Both sides also conduct annual military drills.  — VBL, GMA News