President Marcos thanked Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski for including the Philippines in his Southeast Asian visit, stressing that the importance Poland is giving the region is a "significant symbol."
Marcos welcomed Sikorski at the Malacañan Palace on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 4.
“Welcome to the Philippines, once again. It’s been too long since your last visit when you were at the Defense Ministry,” the President told the Polish official, who first visited the Philippines in 2006 in his capacity as Poland’s Defense Minister.
Marcos expressed appreciation to Sikorski for visiting the country “considering the situation in Europe,” particularly the current geopolitical development there.
"I am very appreciative, certainly, considering the situation in Europe that you have found time to come to this part of the world and visit some of the countries in the region and to have included the Philippines," Marcos stated.
"I can just imagine some of the challenges that Poland is having to deal with in terms of the geopolitical situation and so the importance that you have given to the Indo-Pacific is a significant symbol, a message as well to the rest of the world on how we stand together, so we thank you very much for that," the Chief Executive added.
For his part, Sikorski was thankful “for the time and honor” the President accorded to him and his delegation. He also congratulated him for his “very successful diplomacy” and security efforts.
“As we are very impressed by a number of defense cooperation agreements with the Philippines – and I’m very pleased with the conversations that we have to prioritize,” Sikorski told Marcos.
Sikorski’s visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of the bilateral relations between the Philippines and Poland, which was formally established on September 22, 1973.
Poland has been supplying the Philippines with Black Hawk helicopters. It also served as the country’s 9th top trading partner among the European Union countries in 2023. Poland serves as a second home to almost 3,000 Filipinos.