MALACAÑANG on Thursday confirmed the reported virtual meeting among President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., outgoing United States (US) President Joseph R. Biden, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

This comes months after Mr. Marcos, Mr. Biden, and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a trilateral meeting in Washington in April last year.

The upcoming “trilateral phone call” is scheduled for Jan. 12, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar B. Chavez said in a Viber message to reporters. 

He did not elaborate.

The three countries held a maritime cooperative activity in December last year, in line with their commitment to keeping peace and freedom of navigation in international waters and in the Indo-Pacific region.

The US and Japan have been at the forefront of international condemnation of China’s intrusions into Philippine waters in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

Security analysts have said the three-way partnership is likely to continue under President-elect Donald J. Trump, who promoted the concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” in his first US presidency. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza