Bongbong Marcos to attend 43rd Asean Summit in Indonesia next week

FILE PHOTO: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Marcos wave goodbye before boarding PR001 for a five-day working visit in Tokyo, Japan, in February 2023. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to leave the country to attend the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Jakarta.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu said in a press briefing Thursday that the President will fly to Indonesia on September 4 and should return to the Philippines on September 7. The 43rd Asean Summit is slated from September 5-7.

“President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., along with the leaders of the other Asean member-states and several dialogue partners will participate in the 43rd Asean Summit and Related Summits in Jakarta, Indonesia – this will be from 5 to 7 September 2023 at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, His Excellency Joko Widodo as this year’s Asean Chairman,” Espiritu said, reading the DFA’s statement.

According to Espiritu, next week’s Asean Summit is a follow up on the meetings held last May.

“Now, in the 43rd Summit, the activities of the various participants will now focus on the follow-on activities to realize the deliverables of the 42nd Summit so parang the completion or the next steps for the 42nd Summit. But of course, just like in most Asean summits, the story does not end there,” he noted.

The DFA official said Asean leaders are anticipated to produce more than 90 target documents tackling a variety of topics in the September meetings. These documents include:

• Asean leaders’ declaration on strengthening food security and nutrition in response to crisis
• Individual joint statements on strengthening cooperation on food security between Asean, Australia, Canada and India
• Asean guidelines on the protection of migrant workers and family members in crisis situation
• Asean leaders statement on the development of the digital economy and framework agreement.
• Asean joint statement on climate change to the 28 sessions of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Marcos’ trip to Indonesia next week would be his third since taking on the presidency in June 2022.

Marcos’ second trip to Indonesia as president happened last May for the 42nd Asean Summit, where he promised to advance the Philippines’ interests in Southeast Asia.

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