President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday encouraged Filipino ambassadors to find new and diverse “non-traditional” partners for trade, security and defense.
In a meeting with recently appointed Filipino chiefs of mission and ambassadors in Malacañang, Marcos stressed that the Philippines needs to adapt to the changing global landscape in order to remain competitive.
He also cited the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of a major change that has disrupted the global economy and altered the dynamics of international relations.
However, the President underscored that his administration will not take sides in foreign policy disputes. Instead, he said the government should remain neutral.
“We do not subscribe to any notion of a bipolar world. We only side, of course, to the Philippines, not to the US, not to Beijing, not to Moscow. That’s very much being independent in what we do,” Marcos said.
The President also urged the envoys to explore and discuss with him some opportunities or undertakings that might be substantially beneficial to the country and to Filipinos.
He said the government is prioritizing agriculture, energy, infrastructure development and digitalization.
“Now, if there are opportunities that would come up, you should explore them and if they’re promising enough, then we’ll take it up. We’ll try to see if something can come up. There’s no harm in trying, at least we tried,” Marcos said.
“So let us keep looking at those areas. And also what I found many times, you go there and you talk about agriculture and something else comes up,” he added.
Those who attended the meeting with the President were Chief of Mission Carlos Deymek Sorreta, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Henry Sicad Bensurto Jr. (Republic of Turkiye), Renato Pedro Oabel Villa (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Raul Salavarria Hernandez (Sultanate of Oman), Paul Raymund Pasion Cortez (Portuguese Republic), Joel Francisco Ignacio (Republic of India), and Maria Angela Abrera Ponce (Malaysia).