Marcos arrives in Manila from six-day US visit
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr arrived late Monday in Manila from his six-day visit to the United States.
His flight, Philippine Airlines PR001, landed at the Villamor Airbase at 9:44 pm.
Marcos returned from participating Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting and working visits to San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii.
The President said he was able to secure around $ 670 in investment pledges from his trip.
Marcos said that a high-level business delegation appointed by US President Joe Biden will arrive in the country in 2024.
“We look forward to seeing more of these partnerships materialize in the months ahead, especially with the visit of the high-level U.S. Presidential Trade and Investment Mission in March next year and we are also co-hosting the 2024 Indo-Pacific Business Forum,” he said.
“This is in fact a new feature as there has never been a presidential high-level delegation to any country before and that is again because of our continuing strong partnership with the United States,” he added.
Marcos said that his talks with various state leaders and officials were “very productive” since they discussed how to strengthen ties to address economic and security challenges.
During his visit to the US, he held meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral John Aquilino.
“Our discussions were of course very productive, with innovation, resilience, sustainability, and inclusiveness as cross-cutting themes that are buttressed by our commitment to further strengthening cooperation and to address challenges that are common to all our economies both economic challenges and security challenges,” Marcos said.
“These reinforced my discussions with leaders during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, in which I pushed for our priorities in clean, renewable, and just, and accessible, affordable energy; food security; health systems; digitalization and digital transformation and digital inclusion of MSMEs; and of course climate action through regional cooperation. We identified concrete ways forward as reflected in intergovernmental agreements concluded during the visit,” he added.
Marcos signed two deals with the US including the 123 agreement, which is a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, and the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement which he said will “improve supply chain transparency”.
He also met with business leaders, as well as with the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and energy sectors.
Marcos visited Filipino communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco to thank them for their contributions.
He finished his visit to the US with a speaking engagement at the Daniel Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS). Jaspearl Tan/DMS
