Trade ties on tap in French president’s official trip to PH in ‘15

French President François Hollande is expected to reciprocate President Aquino’s historic official visit to France as part of his European tour last September with a visit of his own to the Philippines next year.

According to French Ambassador to Mania Gilles Garachon, President Hollande would not only be the first French head of state, but also the first European head of state, to undertake an official visit to the Philippines.

“The exchanges between our two countries have been at its highest point since 2012, and we’d like to continue this for the coming years,” Ambassador Garachon said in a statement issued Thursday.

“We are truly looking forward to this visit so that President Hollande could see first hand the economic, political, and cultural opportunities here in the Philippines.”

The French envoy noted with the upcoming visit of President Hollande to the Philippines, the French government hopes to be able to open new areas for cooperation, as well as to strengthen the existing partnership of the two countries in various sectors including the environment.

Garachon pointed out that as the host of COP 21 in December 2015, France has placed climate change among its foreign policy priorities.

He said the French Embassy in the Philippines is committed to work together with the Philippine government to address climate change through a series of projects to be carried out until December 2015.

The first of which is a roundtable discussion organized by the Asia Center in partnership with the French Regional Delegation for Cooperation with ASEAN (DREG) and supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines and the Embassies of the United Kingdom and of Germany.