Philippines-US defence arrangements to stay intact, ambassador to Washington says

MANILA (Reuters) - Existing defence agreements betwixt information allies the Philippines and the United States volition stay intact nether U.S. President Donald Trump, Manila's ambassador to the United States said connected Monday.

For his part, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is acceptable to question erstwhile Trump has clip for a gathering and that could beryllium successful the bluish spring, Jose Manuel Romualdez told reporters connected the sidelines of a forum with overseas media successful Manila.

Asked astir U.S. information enactment for the Philippines, including subject financing, patrols successful the South China Sea and Philippine defence facilities presently utilized by U.S. forces nether their alliance, Romualdez said: "All of that volition remain".

The United States and erstwhile colony the Philippines are staunch defence allies, with U.S. troops rotating successful and retired of the Southeast Asian state regularly and dozens of associated exercises held each year.

The United States has besides deployed to the Philippines a Typhon multipurpose rocket strategy for grooming purposes, angering China, which has repeatedly said the determination poses a menace to determination stability.

The Philippines was seeking to import liquefied earthy state from the United States arsenic portion of a "give and take" connected trade, Romualdez said.

His remarks travel arsenic immoderate countries successful Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Thailand, scramble to trim commercialized surpluses with the United States pursuing Trump's bid to his authorities to implicit a reappraisal of each his country's commercialized relationships by April 1.

"Trump's thought of what the United States wants to bash is helping different countries go a existent partner," said Romualdez, who is simply a relative of the Philippine president and was posted successful Washington nether the erstwhile Manila administration.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by John Mair)