What U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping Have to Say to Bongbong Marcos
As COMELEC finalizes the votes from the 2022 Philippine general elections, world leaders are coming forward to congratulate the presumptive president of the Philippines, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos. While the tallies are still unofficial, Marcos leads his competitors by a wide margin, enough that the leaders of China and the United States of America have formally congratulated Marcos for his election win.
U.S. President Joseph Biden called presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. personally earlier today to congratulate him.
“President Biden underscored that he looks forward to working with the President-elect to continue strengthening the U.S.-Philippine Alliance, while expanding bilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues, including the fight against COVID-19, addressing the climate crisis, promoting broad-based economic growth, and respect for human rights,” said a press statement from the White House.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping conveyed his congratulations to the presumptive president through the Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian. Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan also congratulated presumptive vice president Sara Duterte.
Xilian did not divulge the details of their conversation, however the ambassador previously stated that China “looks forward to working the next Philippine government to upgrade our relationship of comprehensive strategic cooperation.”
The U.S. and China are among the Philippines’ strongest allies, however, incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration forged closer ties with China during his term. Marcos currently has a standing contempt-of-court order over the distribution of his late father’s estate, which bars him from entering U.S. territory.
The next few months will set the tone for the Philippines’ bilateral relations with the world’s top two superpowers for the next six years.
