Prez on Philippines, Japan tour today to improve ties
President Ram Nath Kovind will be on a sevenday visit to Philippines and Japan from October 17 to 23. Counter terrorism, trade and defence are some of the issues that will be discussed during the talks in Manila while in Japan, President will attend Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony.
Giving the details of the two visits, Mrs Vijay Thakur Singh, secretary (East) in ministry of external affairs said that Philippines is a key partner in the Asean region and the visit is being undertaken to carry forward the high-level engagement between the two counties.
“Relations with the Philippines have been friendly. We have common values and our economic
relationship has been growing. There has been 17% increase in trade with Philippines in the last two years and several companies of both sides have investments,” said Mrs Singh.
She added that the President during his stay in Manila from October 17 to 21 would like to promote economic opportunities in India and the Indian side would be looking at attracting more investments. A large business delegation will also be in Manila to attend the Business Conclave and the 4th India-Asean business meeting.
During the delegation level talks between President Kovind and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, the two sides will focus on improving partnership in counter-terrorism and increasing defence cooperation. India and Philippines have a Joint Working group on Counter Terrorism and the last meeting of this group was held in 2017.
India had given 500,000 dollars to Philippines for rebuilding of Marawi town that was destroyed during ISIS siege between 2017 and 2018. With ISIS having India on its map for terrorism, India has intensified its collaboration with partner countries. In the upcoming meeting, issues like radicalization and intelligence sharing etc will also be discussed.