President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed interest on how to elevate the partnership between the Philippines and Australia, Ambassador Steven James Robinson said.

In a press conference after a courtesy call to Marcos on Friday, the Australian envoy disclosed the significant topics they discussed.

"We talked about trade relationship, how trade between Philippines and Australia is growing significantly and how it is improving despite the pandemic over the last few years and we talked a lot about people to people links between Australia and the Philippines," said Robinson.

"The fact that there are more and more links developing between Australia and Philippines than ever before and so it was very interesting to hear the president view about on how we might build in all of those linkages, particularly in terms of the economy which is the fundamental focus for the president-elect and also on how we can build our bilateral relationship with Australia as we move to our strategic partnership later this year," he said.

"It was very, very good to hear the president's views on what he wishes to do and how he wishes to bolster the relationship and to reaffirm Australia's long standing commitment and partnership with the Philippines," he added.

According to Robinson, the issue in the West Philippine Sea was also discussed and he reiterated the Australian government's support to the arbitral tribunal's decision in favor of the Philippines.

"We touched upon the situation in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea and I reiterated our commitment to the Philippine in supporting the outcome of the arbitral award and supporting the Philippine as it (is) dealing with difficult regional issues," he said.

Robinson said other topics also discussed include defense and diplomatic relationship between the Philippines and Australia.

"In my discussion with the President-elect, we talked about the nature of Australia's relations with the Philippines and how it is grown over the last six years in particular about diplomatic relationship. We talk about defense relationship, the cooperation between the Australian Defense Force and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the training that we conduct with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and our strong support for the Philippine military," he said.

"We talked about development assistance relationship, how Australia invest about 80 million dollars a year in the Philippines to provide assistance particularly (down in the BARMM) where we need consistency, security and prosperity and for the people in Mindanao," he added. Robina Asido/DMS