MANILA, Philippines- Inaayos na ng Pilipinas at ng United States ang pulong sa pagitan nina Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at Donald Trump “as soon as possible,” ayon kay Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo nitong Sabado.
“We’re looking at hopefully as soon as possible,” ani Manalo nang tanungin kung nakatakdang makipagpulong si Marcos Jr. sa pinuno ng traditional ally ng Pilipinas.
“No specific dates… It’s very hard to schedule,” dagdag niya.
Kasunod ang pahayag ni Manalo ng pulong niya kasama si US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sa sidelines ng Munich Security Conference, at ilang linggo matapos ang phone call sa pagitan ni Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro at kanyang US counterpart na si Pete Hegseth.
Inihayag ng US ang “strong commitment” na palakasin pa ang economic ties sa Pilipinas, base kay Manalo.
“Let me just say that there was a strong commitment to enhance our economic cooperation — both government and private — in addition to any defense and security,” wika niya.
“We need to come up with a long list of specific areas when we have a more detailed discussion, but definitely there’s a strong interest in economic progress,” dagdag ng opisyal.
“We’ll see how it goes, but definitely on economic cooperation, we are very upbeat.” RNT/SA
