President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would make a state visit to Japan early in 2023 ahead of a similar visit to China, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin revealed in an interview with Kyodo News on Monday.
Mr. Marcos attaches “great importance” to visiting Japan, the biggest source of official development assistance for the Philippines, Lucas Bersamin told the Tokyo-based news agency in his first interview with foreign media as the Cabinet’s “little President.”
The former Chief Justice said “there’s no urgency to go to China” for the President as Manila continues to bolster its defense cooperation with Tokyo amid Beijing’s growing maritime assertiveness.
Mr. Marcos has already accepted China’s invitation for a state visit, Bersamin noted. When asked if the President’s trips to the two countries will occur at the same time, he said he expects the Japan trip to take place “early next year” and “ahead of China.”
Bersamin said the President is looking to Japan for continued collaboration on clean energy, infrastructure, agriculture, food security, and maritime security in the South China Sea, to which China has sweeping and overlapping claims with the Philippines and other countries.
He said the President may ask for more help from Japan with regard to patrol boats, saying that “our coastlines will have to be defended.”
The Philippines has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea in the waters within the country’s exclusive economic zone.
With only three large patrol ships in its fleet, including two provided from Japan between May and June, the Philippine coast guard remains outmatched by the better-equipped Chinese coast guard in the contested waters, Kyodo News noted.
Mr. Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida first met in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, and arrangements have been underway for the Philippine leader’s trip to Japan, it added.
The visit was initially scheduled for December but pushed back due to regional and international conferences taking place later this year, Bersamin said.
Mr. Marcos will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Leaders’ Summit in Cambodia from Nov. 10 to 13 before proceeding to Thailand from Nov. 18 to 19 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week.
The President will raise the South China Sea issue as well as post-pandemic economic recovery and transformation in his Asean meetings in Phnom Penh, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu noted previously.
“The South China Sea will also be there because we always carry that in all of our meetings in the international fora,” Espiritu said.
“(Post pandemic recovery discussions) would cover food security, energy security, digital transformation and the digital economy, and also climate change in as much as this is very much related to our disaster management efforts in the Philippines,” he added.
Mr. Marcos will then join other heads of state for the annual APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) in Bangkok. There, he will raise economic issues, food and energy security, and climate change during the 8th APEC Meeting next week, Malacanang said Monday.
In a media briefing, Office of the Press Secretary officer-in-charge Cheloy Garafil said the annual regional forum is an opportunity for the country to advance its economic agenda and priorities.