By Prince Golez
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has urged Filipino ambassadors to continuously look for so-called “non-traditional” partners in terms of trade, and security and defense requirements of the country.
The Philippines has to cope with the changing times so as not to be left behind, Marcos Jr. said citing the current global situation amid the ‘pandemic economy’ that altered the dynamics of world dealings,
“We are constantly now- after all the changes that have been imposed upon us, like the pandemic economy and the world situation, looking for what we sometimes referred to as non-traditional partners in trades, in any kind, in security and defense issues. All these things, we are always looking for partners,” he said during a meeting with recently appointed Filipino chiefs of mission and ambassadors in Malacañang.
But, the President said his administration will remain neutral in terms of foreign policy, not siding with the views of other countries.
“We do not subscribe to any notion of a bipolar world . We only side, of course, to the Philippines, not to the US, not to Beijing, not to Moscow. That’s very much being independent in what we do,” according to him.
Marcos Jr. also asked the envoys to explore opportunities or undertakings that could be significantly beneficial to the country and to Filipinos.
“I’m sure you have heard that we are prioritizing agriculture, energy, all of the infrastructure development, and digitalization. Now, if there are opportunities that would come up, you should explore them and if they’re promising enough, then we’ll take it up. We’ll try to see if something can come up. There’s no harm in trying and kung anuman ang mangyari, at least we tried,” the chief executive said.
“So let us keep looking at those areas. And also what I found many times, you go there and you talk about agri and something else comes up,” he furthered.
Present during the meeting were Chief of Mission Carlos Deymek Sorreta, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Henry Sicad Bensurto Jr. (Republic of Turkiye), Renato Pedro Oabel Villa (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Raul Salavarria Hernandez (Sultanate of Oman), Paul Raymund Pasion Cortez (Portuguese Republic), Joel Francisco Ignacio (Republic of India), and Maria Angela Abrera Ponce (Malaysia).
