President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala noted on Thursday that foreign trips to their respective countries have borne fruit as they agreed to further explore more areas of cooperation that are beneficial to their people.
In a bilateral meeting Thursday, President Marcos said that the two-day visit of Prime Minister Fiala to the Philippines in April last year showed the vibrant bilateral ties between the Philippines and the Czech Republic.
The Prime Minister visited Manila on April 16 to 18, 2023 and met with President Marcos where they launched the book “Kaibigan-Přátelé: Czech-Philippine Cultural and Diplomatic Dialogue in Malacañan Palace.
During their bilateral meeting, Prime Minister Fiala expressed to President Marcos their readiness to support the Philippines in various sectors such as agriculture, energy technology, transportation, civil aviation and aeronautics, and space technology.
On Thursday’s meeting with President Marcos in Czech Republic, Prime Minister Fiala told the President that they are reiterating their strong commitment for the Philippines’ economic development.
Prime Minister Fiala said that they considered the Philippines as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region. “We see the Philippines as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region … we are interested in stronger economic and trade nation with your country. We can assist this diversification of your country’s economic model,” the Prime Minister told President Marcos.
“And I saw in Manila many possibilities for our future cooperation. We discussed cooperation, agriculture, defense, aviation, and energy,” the Prime Minister added as he extended his gratitude for President Marcos’ efforts to reciprocate his state visit in April last year.
For his part, President Marcos acknowledged Prime Minister Fiala’s strong commitment to the Philippines and the Filipino people as he wished to further strengthen the bilateral ties between the Philippines and the Czech Republic.
“This is indeed really the fruit of the very gracious invitation,” President Marcos said, referring to his three-day state visit in Czech Republic upon the invitation of Czech President Petr Favel, whom he also met on Thursday. Both leaders have agreed to explore more areas of cooperation such as in agriculture, trade and investment, defense and security, labor space, technology, among others.
“We continue to pursue and explore the areas that we spoke about before. We, of course, talked about the defense and security and in that vein, we have just, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as you know, is in the process of modernization of our capabilities and capacities,” he said.
“We continue to explore also in terms of agriculture, cybersecurity, which is something that we spoke about very briefly, but now we put a little bit more, put a bit more meat on the bones of that initial discussion that we have had,” President Marcos added.
The Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the Czech Republic were officially established on October 5, 1973. |PND
