Clinton arrives in Manila, meeting with Aquino tops agenda

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Manila Tuesday afternoon from a brief refueling stop in the US territory of Guam.

Clinton is scheduled to meet President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday and participate in a signing ceremony on the USS Fitzgerald. Her visit comes at a time when tensions between Manila and Beijing are running high over disputed territories in the South China Sea. The United States recently provided the Philippines with a destroyer and Clinton will discuss offering a second one, according to official sources. Before traveling to Manila, Clinton declared in Honolulu, Hawaii that the 21st century will be "America's Pacific century" and said the region's problems require US leadership. "There are challenges facing the Asia-Pacific right now that demand America's leadership, from ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea to countering North Korea's provocations and proliferation activities to promoting balanced and inclusive economic growth," she said. Clinton's remarks, in a speech at the East-West Center, were part of a campaign by President Barack Obama to "pivot" US foreign policy to focus more intensely on Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is becoming increasingly clear that, in the 21st century, the world's strategic and economic center of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to western shores of the Americas," she said. "One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will be to lock in a substantially increased investment — diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise — in this region," Clinton told students and scholars at the East-West Center, a Honolulu think tank. Clinton said Washington aimed to forge in the Asia-Pacific region in this century a network similar to the transatlantic network of institutions and relationships that the United States and its allies in Europe built in the 20th century. "Today, there is a need for a more dynamic and durable transpacific system — a more mature security and economic architecture that will promote security, prosperity, and universal values; resolve differences among nations; foster trust and accountability; and encourage effective cooperation on the scale that today's challenges demand," she said. — With Reuters/ELR/VS, GMA News