Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos speaks throughout a press convention at Malacanang Palace in Manila on August 11, 2025. (Photograph by Jam STA ROSA / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned Monday that his nation can be dragged “kicking and screaming” into any battle over Taiwan, however should put together for it.
China considers self-ruled Taiwan, Manila’s closest neighbor to the north, to be a part of its territory and has threatened to grab it by power.
“If there’s a battle over this it’s close to us. What are we imagined to do?” Marcos advised a information convention, including: “We will’t ignore it.”
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“So inevitably, regardless of our fervent want to keep away from any confrontation with anyone, wherever, a battle over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming into the battle,” he mentioned.
“I hope it doesn’t occur… But when it does we’ve to plan for it already,” he mentioned, citing the massive numbers of Filipinos working in Taiwan.
In an interview with Indian information company Firstpost throughout a state go to to New Delhi final week, Marcos mentioned that within the occasion of a confrontation between China and the US over Taiwan, “there isn’t any manner that the Philippines can keep out of it merely due to our bodily geographic location”.
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“If there’s an all-out battle, then we shall be drawn into it,” Marcos mentioned within the interview, which was uploaded on YouTube.
The reported feedback angered Beijing, with the the Chinese language overseas ministry lodging a diplomatic protest and accusing Marcos of “enjoying with fireplace” over the difficulty.
China and the Philippines have engaged in a sequence of confrontations within the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually fully regardless of a global ruling that the assertion has no authorized foundation.
Since his election in 2022, Marcos has boosted cooperation between the previous US colony and the US, with which Manila has a mutual defence treaty.
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