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Opening Remarks by EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar at the 5th India-Philippines Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation

Posted on: June 29, 2023 | Back | Print

Excellency,

Let me begin by saying how delighted we are to welcome you to New Delhi for the 5th meeting of our Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation.I do remember our earlier meeting in Cambodia on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit and I am really very very glad today that you are here with us.

I must first of all compliment you on the article in the Indian Express. I think, early this morning I got a number of comments on that article, all uniformly positive. But I think many of the points you made there, which is that our domestic agenda of both countries is focused on inclusion and empowerment, that business to business is the pathway of going forward, the importance of our defence cooperation, the need to stabilise the Indo-pacific, the importance of respecting rule of law and promoting inclusive multilateralism…and the fact that we are both democratic Asian Republics. I think all these messages resonate very very strongly with us.

From our perspective, we have ofcourse been very keen to engage your Government and I know Prime Minister and President Marcos had a telephonic talk last year.

So I look forward today to really sitting down with you and discussing how to take our cooperation forward. I would also like to express my appreciation for your participation in the Voice of Global South Summit. And I truly believe today that, you know, we are two countries who share so much, who look at global developments and continental developments with so much convergence and who have so many economic complementarities that our Joint Commission will surely be very productive.

Once again a very warm welcome.

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