The Philippines and the United States will hold bilateral Strategic Dialogue next week as a follow through of the recently signed Semiconductor and Critical Minerals Understanding (MOU).
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine Ambassador to the U.S., said during a media briefing Tuesday, February 11, 2026 by the U.S.-Philippine Society (US-PH Society) that more details on the deal are expected to come out from the Strategic Dialogue.
“There is going to be a bilateral Strategic Dialogue with the United States and Philippines in the coming week. I think it’s during that time that we will have more information regarding the critical minerals agreement that we have with the United States,” said Ambassador Romualdez.
The MOU was signed by Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla and U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg on the sidelines of the 2026 Critical Minerals Ministerial on February 4, The ministerial was hosted by the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. brought together ministers and senior officials from 54 countries and the European Commission.
“This is very important for us and I think there are quite a number of other countries that have already signed up with the United States. We are one of those that’s been picked even before,” said Romualdez.
He said the Philippines would like to take hold of the raw ore being mined in the country and process it locally instead of exporting it as raw minerals. China buys almost everything of the Philippine raw ore because there is no local processing.
“That’s one area where I think we can have very good cooperation with the United States in the processing of our nickel, and many others that they’re looking at, like copper and so on. So all of these are going to be part of our export,” he said.
In an earlier statement, the Department of Trade and Industry said the U.S. has committed to providing the Philippines an audience with the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a collaboration of 13 countries and the EU, which aims to catalyze public and private investment in responsible critical minerals supply chains globally.
As both countries work together to engage other nations to do mineral refining in the Philippines, the US is ready to assist in the technical processes as the Philippines prepares a work plan on critical minerals, according to the DTI.
