PH, Mongolia to develop new areas of cooperation www.news.mb.com.ph
BEIJING — The Philippines and Mongolia have agreed to revitalize bilateral relations and develop new areas of cooperation such as trade and investment, agriculture and tourism.
The agreement was reached during the “interesting and productive” meeting between President Duterte and Mongolian Prime Minister Jargaltulgyn Erdenebat on deepening bilateral ties at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Sunday, May 14.
“Our bilateral relationship is still very young with Mongolia. It’s still not very well-developed. This also means that there’s a lot of potential,” Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq, executive director of the Department of Foreign Affairs-Asia and Pacific Affairs.
“The President and the Prime Minister, they spoke about how to develop these areas of cooperation. For example, in agriculture, in tourism, in trade and finance,” she added.
The two leaders also talked about enhancing political and institutional relationships, apart from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional developments during their bilateral meeting,
“We have a regular meeting between foreign ministries. So I think both sides are very interested to institutionalize this relationship among, between foreign ministries,” Ducrocq said.
The two sides agreed to hold exchange of visits among the senior officials of their respective countries in order to explore opportunities to expand economic, political, and cultural ties.
Erdenebat, for his part, said that Mongolia looked forward to convening the next round of consultations in order to review and strengthen the cooperation of the two sides.
On peace and security situation in the region, Ducrocq said the President expressed his view “that peace is better served when there is more participation by stakeholders in the region.” Mongolia is an important stakeholder, she added.
“These are generally the lines that they discussed. It was a very interesting and productive meeting because it’s a young partnership and there’s a long way to go, there’s a lot of potential,” she said.
She said both leaders also extended invitation to visit each other’s countries but details will still be worked out.
“I believe that was raised and of course, those kinds of invitations will have to go through channels for that (to) be properly processed,” she said.
Published Date:2017-05-15