President elect Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr met with British Ambassador Laure Beaufils in his Mandaluyong Headquarters on Monday.
PRESIDENT-elect Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr on Monday has attended ambassadors from Singapore, United Kingdom, France, and the European Union in his BBM Headquarters in Mandaluyong.
Gerard Ho, Singapore’s ambassador to the Philippines, paid a first visit to Marcos, at around 9 in the morning followed shortly by Ambassador Laure Beaufils of the United Kingdom.
European Union Ambassador Luc Vèron likewise paid a visit at around 11 a.m., followed by Ambassador Michelle Boccoz of France who arrived at about 12 noon.
The envoys vowed during their private meetings to strengthen the ties in trade and diplomacy, including their common interests in democracy, self-determination, and economic recovery.
Following his meeting with Marcos to discuss his short meeting with the new president, Ho faced the media.
“As you know, Singapore and Philippines are friends and close partners. (Our) countries are both founding members of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and successive generations of Singaporean and Philippine leaders have worked together for the peace and prosperity of the region,” Ho said in his opening statement to the media.
“In fact, during our conversation earlier with president-elect, we talked about all the conversations our founding father Mr. Lee and his father Mr. Ferdinand Marcos had talked about when we were discussing developments in the region and working together on it,” Ho added.
Ho likewise discussed the economic reforms between the two Asian countries.
“I think with the resumption of cross-border travel, as well as the passage of a lot of significant economic reforms in the PH, we are hopeful that we continue to grow this bilateral economic relationship with the PH and it will continue to flourish,” the ambassador noted.
“We see a lot of growth potential in the Philippines and we hope to see more and more Singapore companies coming into the Philippines’ market,” Ho added.
Ho also revealed that Singapore President Halimah Yacob had asked Marcos to visit Singapore.
However, he clarified that there are currently no details because the schedules of the two leaders are still being discussed.
Meanwhile, Beaufils also insisted on the good relationship of their country with the Philippines.
“So, I am delighted that I just came out of the meeting with the President-elect which was really useful, very informative, and very warm. I was able to set out that the UK already has a really strong bilateral relationship with the Philippines and a strong friendship between our countries and between our peoples and that we intend to take that from strength to strength over the course of the president-elect’s administration,” Beaufils noted.
“We were able to discuss areas of particular joint interests where we want to further work together and expand and broaden and deepen our collaboration. For example, as you know, the president-elect is very focused on the economy and we… boosting the economy after the pandemic and we were able to discuss what the UK has been doing in that space and what more we would do support businesses, to support trade, to support investments and infrastructure in particular,” she added.
They also discussed regarding climate change, energy, peace process in Mindanao and also human rights and media freedom, Beaufils further stated.
“And I said I was very much looking forward to working with the next administration,” Beaufils averred.
