Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos met with a top U.S. official in Manila on Thursday, underscoring efforts to preserve an alliance strained by incumbent leader Rodrigo Duterte's animosity toward Washington and his embrace of Beijing.
The Philippines is a fulcrum of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. Though the Southeast Asian country has a defence treaty with the United States, their ties were left shaken by Duterte's recent overtures to China.
