Philippines member of World Trade Organization
The Philippines ( (listen); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It is the world's thirteenth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and cultures. Manila is the country's capital, and its largest city is Quezon City; both are within Metro Manila.
Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. The adoption of Animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms ruled by datus, rajas, and sultans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villaloboscode: spa promoted to code: es  named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896, which became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, and Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States controlling the territory until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. After liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. The unitary sovereign state has had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship in a nonviolent revolution.
The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit; it is a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Its location as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The Philippines has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity.Foreign relations
As a founding and active member of the United Nations,: 37–38  the Philippines is part of the Security Council. The country participates in peacekeeping missions, particularly in East Timor.: 167  The Philippines is a founding and active member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and a member of the East Asia Summit, the Group of 24, and the Non-Aligned Movement. The country has sought to obtain observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation since 2003, and was a member of SEATO. Over 10 million Filipinos live and work in 200 countries, giving the Philippines soft power.: 207 During the 1990s, the Philippines began to seek economic liberalization and free trade: 7–8  to help spur foreign direct investment. It is a member of the World Trade Organization: 8  and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The Philippines entered into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement (FTA) in 2023, and, through ASEAN, has signed FTAs with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.: 15  The country has bilateral FTAs with Japan and four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.: 9–10, 15 The Philippines has a long relationship with the United States, involving economics, security, and interpersonal relations. The Philippines' location serves an important role in the United States' island chain strategy in the West Pacific; a Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries was signed in 1951, and was supplemented with the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2016 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The country supported American policies during the Cold War and participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars. In 2003, the Philippines was designated a major non-NATO ally. Under President Duterte, ties with the United States weakened in favor of improved relations with China and Russia. The U.S. promised in 2021 to defend the Philippines, including the South China Sea.The Philippines has valued its relations with China since 1975, and cooperates significantly with the country. Japan is the biggest bilateral contributor of official development assistance to the Philippines; although some tension exists because of World War II, much animosity has faded.: 93  Historical and cultural ties continue to affect relations with Spain. Relations with Middle Eastern countries are shaped by the high number of Filipinos working in those countries, and by issues related to the Muslim minority in the Philippines; concerns have been raised about domestic abuse and war affecting the approximately 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the region.The Philippines has claims in the Spratly Islands which overlap with claims by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The largest of its controlled islands is Thitu Island, which contains the Philippines' smallest town. The 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, after China seized the shoal from the Philippines, led to an international arbitration case which the Philippines eventually won; China rejected the result, and made the shoal a prominent symbol of the broader dispute.
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