Chinese State Counselor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Manila Friday for a two-day visit as part of the four-country swing in Southeast Asia.
Wang is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to consider ways to “ramp up cooperation” on trade, investments, infrastructure development, and on ways how to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
He was met at the airport by DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippine Huang Xilian.
The top Chinese diplomat’s visit from Jan. 15 to 16 reciprocates Locsin’s trip to China last October.
According to the Chinese government-owned Global Times news platform, Wang’s visit to the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Brunei is expected to “strengthen cooperation with the four countries on fighting COVID-19 and restart important projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) anchor.
Wang’s Southeast Asian region swing comes less than a week before the inauguration of President-elect Joseph Biden as the 46th president of the United States.