MANILA: (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) The Philippines and the United States (US) are discussing defence cooperation, with US President Donald Trump’s visit to Manila expected to strengthen ties between the two countries, Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro told Sputnik/RIA Novosti.
"We are discussing defence cooperation as well as certain aspects of trade,” Lazaro said in response to a question about the significance of Trump’s visit.
Manila has received confirmation that the US president will attend the Asean summit, the foreign secretary said, adding that the visit would provide an opportunity to reaffirm a number of agreements between the two countries.
Asked about US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s proposal to develop a multi-year programme for practical US-Asean defence cooperation, Lazaro said no response to the initiative had been received yet.
"I would not surmise a response to that. I defer that to our Department of National Defence because that proposal just came about during the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting, which was just a few days ago, and we haven’t really had any feedback,” Lazaro said.
Meetings of Asean leaders and the association’s dialogue partners will be held in Manila from Nov 15 to 17.
The Russian delegation at the East Asia Summit on Nov 17 will be headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. - Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti
