As Palestine moves to become a “normal state,” its foreign minister underscored her country’s interest in learning from the Philippines’ expertise and experiences in the agriculture and health care sectors.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Dr. Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, who concluded a four-day official visit to the Philippines, said during a press conference in Makati City that they are currently looking at the niches from where they can learn from the Philippines, who supports a two-state solution to the issue in Palestine.

“We need to see what niche the Philippines has. If the Philippines is good in agriculture, the Philippines is good in health care,” she said, adding that they are aware of Filipinos all around the world, particularly in the Middle East and Gulf regions, working in health care.

“And that would be an example of where we can build a relationship with the Philippines. Same with agriculture. So, we would look at what the Philippines is best at and what Palestine needs the most and try to match these two together,” the minister stated.

During her visit, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Philippines and Palestine on political consultations, with the planned meeting to start next year.

Shahin expects that the MOU will result in a “mushrooming of joint ministerial committees that will be working on various issues.”

“For example, the Minister of Tourism will probably hold a meeting in the future with the Minister of Tourism here and discuss issues of religious pilgrimage, same with trade, same with agriculture, and so forth,” she added.

The minister lamented the missed opportunities with the Philippines, stressing that Palestine “should have been here a long time ago.”

“As Palestinians, we want to strengthen our bilateral relations with every country that has recognized Palestine to see how we can move forward, how we can advocate more for the plight of the Palestinians,” she said. “How, for example, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand can help us more in international platforms, how we can maybe start trade activities, religious pilgrimage, and so forth.”

In a speech during a bilateral meeting with Shahin, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said the political consultations will “take stock of our bilateral relations, identify areas of cooperation, and promote our common interests.”

She also informed the Palestinian foreign minister that the Philippines is ready to provide technical and capacity-building assistance as it has “accumulated a wealth of experiences and best practices” in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that may be relevant to the development and reform agenda of Palestine.

These projects will be under the auspices of the Technical Cooperation Council of the Philippines (TCCP), which the DFA chairs. It also has the mandate of promoting South-South cooperation between the Philippines and other developing countries.