The United States has ended its months-long freeze on foreign assistance with a 3 billion-peso (US$60 million) pledge to the Philippines – a modest sum that analysts say carries outsized strategic significance for Washington’s Indo-Pacific priorities under President Donald Trump.
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Analysts say the aid package, while limited in monetary terms, underscores the Philippines’ growing importance to US economic and security strategy – offering a window into how Washington may reward aligned partners even as it pursues a protectionist trade agenda.
Announced just days after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr wrapped up a three-day visit to Washington last week, the aid package will support energy, maritime and economic growth initiatives in the country, including private sector development along the Luzon Economic Corridor.
The funding marks the first foreign aid announcement by the Trump administration since it declared in January that all foreign assistance would be reviewed and potentially realigned to better serve US interests.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed plans to earmark a portion of the fund – 825 million pesos – to develop the private sector in the Luzon Economic Corridor that would help bolster investments in transport, logistics, energy and semiconductors, and generate new jobs in the country.
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