TOKYO, Japan — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday said he was honored to meet Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan, during his “very productive” working visit here.
In a video uploaded to his Instagram, the President said his meeting with Their Majesties reestablished their connection with the Philippines.
“It has been a productive visit and also, one of the highlights of course was my and the First Lady’s audience with Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress, and it was a very great honor for us to be able to meet him and to again reestablish that connection between the Philippines and Japan,” he said.
President Marcos said his working visit to Tokyo is a "particularly important visit" because it is "really a setting down the blueprint for our relations as we slowly emerge from the pandemic economy.”
"And I think that we will be able to feel the effects of these discussions, of these agreements, very, very soon, very rapidly back home in the Philippines,” he claimed.
The President cited the Philippines continuously developing relationships with Japan that started when the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1956.
"Those relations have grown and have become deeper as time has gone on and we owe Japan a debt of gratitude for the support that they have given us in those years,” Marcos said.
“They have supported our agriculture, they have supported our attempts at making the digitalization of the Philippines a more widespread phenomenon,” he added.
According to Marcos, the 35 key agreements signed between the Philippines and Japan on Friday "cut across the whole gamut.”
"We’re talking about agri, we are talking about digitalization, we are talking about industry, we are talking about automotive development, we are talking about energy, even education, tourism,” he said.
President Marcos also lauded the Japanese government and business leaders he met for being very open to discussions for the plans to help accelerate Philippine development.
“ in terms of again, those areas: infrastructure, digitalization, agriculture, some of the traditional areas with which we had always dealt with Japan, but some new areas, areas such as security and defense and also mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change,” Marcos said.