Marcos to meet with leaders of 10 nations in Belgium trip next week

FILE PHOTO: Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr at the “APEC Leaders’ Informal Dialogue with Guests” event during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok on November 18, 2022. (Photo by ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA / POOL / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to meet with the leaders of 10 countries during his three-day trip to Brussels, Belgium, next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.

Marcos will be attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union (Asean-EU) Commemorative Summit on December 14 and will hold bilateral meetings with the leaders on the sidelines of the conference, DFA Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu said in a Palace briefing.

The President is expected to stay in Brussels from December 12-14.

According to the DFA official, Marcos will meet with King Philippe of Belgium and the two leaders are anticipated to talk about expanding Manila-Brussels cooperation in agriculture and renewable energy.

The President will also meet with the leader of Estonia and discuss cybersecurity cooperation and a pending extradition treaty, he added. Marcos will also meet with the leader of the Czech Republic and tackle cooperation and proposed technology transfers on defense, Espiritu likewise said.

Further, Marcos will meet with the leader of Denmark and talk about maritime cooperation and ship-building, he noted.

The President and his EU counterpart will also have a meeting, according to Espiritu, since the two are co-coordinators of the Asean-EU summit.

“Mag-uusap ‘yan about preparations and the way forward for Asean-EU relations as well as Philippine-EU relations, including the way forward for pending Philippines-EU free trade agreement,” Espiritu said.

(They will talk about preparations and the way forward for Asean-EU relations, Philippine-EU relations and the pending Philippine-EU free trade agreement.)

Aside from bilateral meetings, Marcos is expected to speak before summit participants, as well as deliver opening and closing remarks. Marcos will also join a panel of speakers at the press conference after the event.

More meetings

During his trip, Marcos will likewise meet with big corporations that intend to expand their presence in the Philippines.

He will also attend roundtable discussions with EU and European businesses where he will have the opportunity to “expound on our trade and investment policies to attract more trade and investments from Europe,” Espiritu said.

“Kasama rin ang networking among Filipino businessmen and European businessmen. Hopefully for this networking, the Filipino businessmen will be able to come up with deals with their European counterparts,” he added.

(There will also be networking between Filipino businessmen and European businessmen.)

Espiritu then said the President will meet with the following key European companies:

• Unilever, which intends to establish a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for personal care products in Cavite and is expected to expand their investments to the tune of P4.7 billion
• Ocea, a ship-building and navigation and logistics company which intends to develop a shipyard with an investment of P1.5 billion
• Acciana, an infrastructure and renewable energy company which intends to invest in renewable energy sector in the Philippines
• Simaris, a wholesale market and international logistics hub which plans to develop an agriculture logistics hub in New Clark City that will build and operate a wholesale market for fresh products with an organized and efficient food supply and value chain

Marcos will also meet with the Filipino community on December 12.

“So this will be a very busy trip for the President and we hope that this will redound to a lot of benefits for the Filipino people not only for Asean,” Espiritu said.

Other activities of the President during his Belgium trip include:

• meeting with the business sector with Asean and EU on December 13
• CEO Suite luncheon for EU-Asean Business Summit on December 14, where Marcos is expected to speak
• 10th Asean-EU Business Summit proper where Marcos is anticipated to deliver his remarks

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