President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. left for Indonesia on Tuesday, May 9, hoping to have productive engagements with his counterparts at the 42nd ASEAN summit.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (RTVM Screenshot)
Marcos will be in Labuan Bajo in Indonesia until May 11.
During his trip, he is expected to join other ASEAN leaders in various discussions on community building efforts and various pressing issues in the region.
"I look forward to our productive engagements, to our always productive engagements with our ASEAN partners. This is a continuation of the process that we had begun where deriving from the idea and the principle and the concept of ASEAN Centrality in the face of the challenges that we have to answer not only as single nations but as this political aggrupation that is ASEAN," the President said in his departure speech.
He said his participation will serve to promote and protect the interest of the country, including efforts towards economic growth, attaining food and energy security security, promoting trade and investment, combatting transnational crimes such as the trafficking in persons, and protecting migrant workers in crisis situations.
During the summit, ASEAN leaders are also expected to exchange views on pressing issues of common concerns such as developments in the South China Sea, the situation in Myanmar, and major power rivalry in the Asia-Pacific region.
The chief executive stressed that joining regional summits like this one gives him optimism as "there seems to be a very clear area of commonality" among member nations.
"I am always optimistic because all the interactions that we have had with the different leaders of ASEAN member states and for that matter APEC and all the APEC Plus conferences that we’ve had there seems to be a very clear area of commonality," he said.
"And as the theme of this ASEAN Summit is clearly manifesting, it is once again towards economic growth and to recognize that ASEAN and Southeast Asia have been the partners that the other parts of the world and I speak therefore of India, China, European Union, the United States, Latin America, even some elements of South Africa, look to Southeast Asia as the growth center for the global economy. And that is why it is very important that we go and continue to discuss amongst other ASEAN leaders of all the member states of how we can maximize and find that extra synergy from our working together," he added.
Marcos also mentioned about the maiden participation of Timor Leste in the summit as an observer and disclosed that he will have a bilateral meeting its leaders.
"This is the first time that Timor Leste will join ASEAN as an observer and I am looking forward to a bilateral meeting with the leaders of Timor Leste so that we can discuss their prospective membership in ASEAN," he said.
Marcos will also be participating in the 15th Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), as well as various interfaces with ASEAN leaders with the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary assembly and representatives of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, ASEAN Youth and the High-Level Task Force on the ASEAN Community Post 2025 Vision.
He said he will have the opportunity to highlight the importance of strengthening cooperation in the BIMP-EAGA sub-region to sustain its thriving economy; the strong partnership between the executive and legislative bodies of ASEAN; the role of private sector and the youth in advancing growth and shaping the future of the ASEAN Vision.
Marcos' trip to Indonesia is his third foreign outing this month. He was in Washington, D.C. from April 30 to May 5. From there, he flew to London to attend the coronation of King Charles III. He got back to the country on May 7.