PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is set to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Cambodia, South Korea, Timor Leste and Vietnam during his participation at the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) Summit and its related summits in Indonesia next week.
In a press briefing in Malacañang on Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the chief executive will meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to congratulate the latter on his assumption of office and discuss other possible partnerships.
He is also scheduled for bilateral talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to discuss similar cooperation in time for the 75th year anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Republic of Korea.
Marcos will also be thanking South Korea for its US$300,000 donation to help the government response to typhoon Egay (International name: Doksuri) and its plan to donate 750 metric tons of rice to the Philippines through the Asean Plus Three, rice reserve arrangement.
The country is currently eyeing more rice importation to address its low buffer stock of the food staple.
Also in the President’s itinerary is a meeting with Timor Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão to discuss Timor Leste’s application to become a member of Asean.
Marcos is also set to have a discussion with Vietnam Prime Minister PhamMinh Chinh on strategic partnership cooperation on rice and food security.
Aside from the four confirmed meetings, DFA Assistant Secretary for Asean Affairs Daniel R. Espiritu explained the President can still have more bilateral talks in the upcoming Asean Summit.
“There are others, but I cannot confirm at this point yet, the others, because they are still being arranged,” Espiritu said.
Key outcome documents
The 43rd Asean Summit in Jakarta Indonesia will be held from September 5 to the 7 with the theme, “Asean Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.”
During the summit, he said the President will push for the country’s interest on food and energy security, harnessing the potential of the digital and creative industries and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), addressing the impacts of climate change, and combating human trafficking.
Over 90 outcome documents are being targeted to be issued, adopted or noted during the summits.
Espiritu said among the “key outcome documents” from the summit are the Asean leaders’ declaration on strengthening food security and nutrition in response to the crisis, and also individual joint statements on strengthening cooperation on food security between Asean, Australia, Canada and India.
Other documents, which are expected to be released are the Asean guidelines on the protection of migrant workers and family members in crisis situations; Asean leaders’ statement on the development of the digital economy framework agreement and the ASEAN joint statement on climate change to the 28th session of the Conference of the parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
DFA noted the participants of the Summit will also talk about conflicts in Myanmar and Ukraine as well as geopolitical rivalries in the Indo-Pacific region.