The Marcos administration will seek to forge stronger ties with Chile to improve the two countries’ agriculture and trade relations, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said on Saturday, Dec. 7.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. during his meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren (Malacañang photo)
Citing President Marcos’ meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren on Friday, Dec. 6, the PCO statement shared that the Chief Executive highlighted the potential between the two countries.
“I’ll make certain that everything, the time that you spend here will be as productive as possible and would further the relations between our two countries,” Marcos told the Chilean foreign minister during his courtesy call to Malacañan Palace.
The Chief Executive added that improving relations is the “best way forward” for both countries in such an “interconnected world.”
“Although physical distance used to be a problem or an obstacle, that does not apply any longer. So, I think there’s much that we can do to further the relations and the partnerships between our two countries,” he stressed.
Two of the things that Marcos would like to focus on are agriculture and trade, specifically cacao cultivation and processing.
“Because it’s becoming a very important crop – slowly becoming an important crop. We are trying to promote it. And you have I think the best technologies when it comes to that product,” he shared.
“There are other investments that we were trying to explore,” he added.
Also present during the courtesy call was Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque, who also pointed out that exporting fish and minerals from Mindanao is another area that can be looked at with Chile.
“[There are] skin beauty products and other things that we can [explore on]… And also the agriculture sector and the seafood products that we can export to them,” the DTI chief said.
For his part, Klaveren told Marcos that it was a great honor to meet with him at the Palace, and that he had a very productive visit to the Philippines.
“We have had a very productive meeting with Secretary Manalo… and we talked about our bilateral relations, about regional and global issues, and about the potential of our bilateral relations,” he said.
Chile’s top diplomat was in the Philippines on Friday, Dec. 6, and was received by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo before a meeting with Roque to discuss how to build on the outcomes of the recently held Philippines-Chile Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Meeting in Santiago, Chile last month.
The Philippines and Chile established diplomatic relations on July 4, 1946.
In 2023, Chile was the Philippines’ 49th trading partner out of 230, 47th export market out of 205, and 50th import supplier out of 221.