Secretary Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, III And Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. Before Their Meeting

PRESIDENT MARCOS:  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and of course to our – to our visitors from the United States, Secretary Tony Blinken and Secretary Lloyd Austin, for the 2+2 meetings that we are going to be conducting.  Welcome back to the Philippines.  And I am always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the – all the things that we are doing together in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific are continuously examined – examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses.

But we are very happy to see once again – I am a bit surprised considering how interesting your political situation has become back in the States, but I’m glad that you’ve found the time to come and visit with us.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Mr. President, thank you so much.  Thank you for the – as always, the warm welcome.  I bring you greetings from President Biden and Vice President Harris along with Secretary Austin.  We’re very, very pleased to be here.

Let me just start by sending our deepest condolences to all the victims of the recent typhoon and to say again, anything we can do to be of assistance, we welcome doing that.

I think today is genuinely historic.  This is the first time that the Philippines has hosted our 2+2.  It’s, I think, really evidence of a steady drumbeat of very high-level engagements between our countries that are covering the full range of issues and opportunities that bring us together – not only security but also economic – and we’re truly grateful for this partnership.  We look forward to a very good day with our colleagues and to further advancing the critical work that we’re doing together.  So thank you again for receiving us.

PRESIDENT MARCOS:  No, of course.

SECRETARY AUSTIN:  Mr. President, let me echo Tony’s comments on the warm welcome.  We – it really is great to be back in country again.  And also, it’s – offer of condolences for those who have been affected by the storm.

I’ve said a number of times that we’re more than allies, we’re family.  And it always feels that way when I’m working with our colleagues.  We have common interests, common values.  And so I think we’ve done a lot over the last three and a half years to continue to strengthen our alliance, and we look forward to continuing to work with you and your team to move even further.  But thanks for your leadership, Mr. President.  Again, it’s been a – it’s been a great three and a half years, and I look forward to another three and half or another four – (laughter) – in building – building, strengthening this relationship.  So thanks.

PRESIDENT MARCOS:  Thank you.  Thank you very much indeed.