South Korea to remain one of Philippines’ strongest allies

SEOUL – His independent foreign policy notwithstanding, South Korea will remain one of the Philippines’ strongest allies, President Duterte assured his counterpart here at their bilateral meeting yesterday.

“The Philippines’ independent foreign policy recognizes the importance of friends like South Korea in building the environment needed for us to grow together,” Duterte told South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Cheong Wa Dae or the Blue House, the official residence of the Korean leader.

The President’s two-day official visit ends today.

Highlighting the meeting was the signing of five agreements aimed at boosting cooperation in techno-logy, agriculture and infrastructure, among others.

“Our restricted meeting has shown us that ours is a special relationship that can only grow stronger with political commitment,” Duterte said.

Duterte said he remains optimistic about seeing healthy growth for Manila-Seoul relations. “I am pleased to discuss ways to move our relations further forward,” he said.

He also voiced support for Moon’s “New Southern Policy” that aims to better connect South Korea with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and expand the economic influence of Asia’s fourth largest economy, home to more than half a billion people.

“The Philippines welcomes the Republic of Korea’s New Southern Policy. As I said before, the Philippines’ destiny is in Asia. We need to work with friends and partners like South Korea to achieve shared aspirations for our people and region,” he said.

The other day, Duterte announced that he wanted to procure military equipment from South Korea to make up for the scrapping of the procurement of 16 Bell choppers from Canada.

“A deeper engagement with South Korea, our long-standing partner and true friend, is essential to further strengthen individual and collective efforts for greater peace, progress and prosperity,” he said.

Duterte talked about the Philippines and South Korea’s strong ties, which began 70 years ago.

“We recognize long and deep ties between our two countries and people. During the Korean War, we fought side by side in defense of freedom and democracy. That is a legacy that must be remembered and continuously reaffirm,” Duterte said.

For his part, Moon warmly welcomed Duterte for accepting his invitation to visit Seoul and share in putting forward the countries’ interests.

“I find it very meaningful that we were able to have such discussions and reaffirm the friendship and trust between the two of us,” he said.

He cited the solid friendship between the two countries as tested in the Korean War.

“On this platform, we have been making remarkable progress for the past 70 years, in every field including politics, economy, culture and people-to-people exchanges,” he said.

“In the meeting I just had with the President, there were plenty of productive discussions on ways to elevate our long-standing friendly relations to an even higher level in a future-oriented way and to establish regional peace together,” Moon said.

“In addition, I hope your visit will provide the impetus for further developing not only the bilateral relations between Korea and the Philippines, but also the relations between Korea and ASEAN. Indeed, next year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of our dialogue relations,” Moon told Duterte.

Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) he signed with his counterpart Kim Hyeon-soo “is the first comprehensive agreement on agricultural cooperation, will now serve as the mother document of all succeeding cooperation agreements.” – Christina Mendez, Louise Maureen Simeon