2023 promises even stronger momentum in US-Philippine ties

THE last five months of 2022 coincided with my first five months serving as US ambassador to the Philippines — an exciting time marked by non-stop engagements that strengthened our ironclad relationship as friends, partners and allies.

Only three weeks after I presented my credentials to newly elected President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Philippines. Numerous other high-level exchanges between our two countries followed. President Marcos met with President Biden in New York in September. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin 3rd met with Department of Defense Officer in Charge Jose Faustino Jr. twice soon thereafter, in Hawaii and in Cambodia.