Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his country would likely be involved in "any" Taiwan conflict given Taiwan's geographic proximity and the need to protect the nearly 200,000 Filipinos who live and work there, Bloomberg reported on May 19. Marcos made the comments ahead of his May 26-29 state visit to Japan, where he will likely discuss deeper security cooperation with Tokyo.

Marcos has made similar statements before, but the timing matters because the remarks come shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which has raised concern among regional U.S. allies over Washington's Taiwan policy and attendant arms sales. Manila has also been coordinating militarily more closely with Japan and the United States in recent years.