Good morning and it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you back President Horta to the Philippines as you have been a frequent visitor to our country and have made many friends here in the Philippines, who are looking forward to seeing you on the time that you are here.

I hope that these exchanges will be — this visit of yours will be the beginning of more exchanges between our two countries. And I thank you for the very gracious invitation that you have just extended to me to visit your country and we would certainly want to do that to, as I said, continue to expand the relations between Timor-Leste and the Philippines.

The Philippines has always been very supportive of, not only the process of independence that East Timor went through, but also for your involvement in international relations and international events and issues that we feel are necessary for us to be able to come together and for us to be able to make a difference and to maintain the peace and the stability in our region, especially in these rather difficult times that we are facing.

So, I am very optimistic that your visit here today will be a very important start to that — developing that relationship and deepening that relationship between our two countries.

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