Presumptive president Bongbong Marcos on Monday met with representatives of the governments of the United States, Japan, South Korea, and India hoping to forge a strong relationship with these countries as he leads the Philippines for the next six years.
Marcos welcomed Japanese Ambassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko, South Korean Ambassador Kim In-chul, Indian Ambassador Shambu Kumaran, and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava to his campaign headquarters in Mandaluyong City where they talked about how the Philippines can work with them under his administration.
"We were able to discuss many of the things, how we are going to handle the next few years in terms of our relationship with the different countries," Marcos told reporters in a press briefing after his meeting with the country representatives.
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Marcos said he and Kazuhiko talked about pursuing infrastructure and transportation projects in the Philippines as well as hiring more Filipino employees to Japan.
He also talked about adopting South Korea's best practices on information technology management with Kim, as well as the possible revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to improve the country's power supply.
"We will now study their recommendations and their findings and we will see if we can still apply. Because as we have been talking about all throughout the campaign, isa sa pinakamalaking problema is the supply of power," Marcos said.
"If we are going to industrialize post-pandemic, the power sector must be ready for that," he added.
With Kumaran, Marcos asked how the Philippines can work with India in the field of agriculture, medicine, and microfinancing, which he said the South Asian country has "very interesting programs" for.
Climate change was the focal point of his discussions with chargé d’affaires Variava, Marcos said, especially on how the U.S. can help the Philippines mitigate its impact. They also talked about security issues, as well as the possible return of the Visiting Forces Agreement.
"This is just to further the discussion so we get into actual, practical detail. Hindi lang 'yung mga vague ideas of what can be done, but really to dig deep down, what can be done, what needs to be done para mag-succeed itong mga program na ito," he added.
Several world leaders have earlier extended their congratulatory messages to Marcos, U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
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