President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr of the Philippines is set to arrive in New Delhi on August 4 in his first trip to India since assuming office in 2022, even as the two countries have begun their first bilateral naval exercise in the South China Sea.
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A statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that Marcos Jr will be visiting India at Prime Minister Narendra Mod’is invitation. During his four-day visit, Marcos Jr will hold talks with President Droupadi Murmu; PM Modi; External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar; and Health Minister J P Nadda, who is also the BJP president.
Marcos Jr will meet Jaishankar on August 4. On August 5, he will lay a wreath at Raj Ghat, before holding bilateral talks with PM Modi in Hyderabad House, wherein India and the Philippines will sign several agreements. He will then meet Nadda and travel to Bengaluru, where he will call on Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot.
India and the Philippines began the two-day “bilateral maritime cooperative activity” on Saturday in waters close to the Scarborough Shoal, a focal point of the maritime dispute between China and the Philippines. Sources say India is joining these efforts owing to its shared concerns about China’s growing maritime power, including in the South China Sea.
Defence cooperation is one of the strong pillars of bilateral relations and a promising area for future collaboration between India and the Philippines, says the website of the Indian embassy in Manila. India delivered the first batch of BrahMos missile system to the Philippines on April 19, 2024, making it the first foreign nation to acquire the missile weapon system.
The diplomatic relations between India and the Philippines were established in November 1949. President Marcos Jr’s state visit coincides with the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, the MEA said.
The MEA statement further said that India’s relations with the Philippines were an integral pillar of its “Act East” policy, Vision MAHASAGAR, and its vision of the Indo-Pacific. The visit is an opportunity for both leaders to set the path for future bilateral cooperation and to engage on regional and international issues of mutual interest, it added.
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As per the website of the Indian embassy in Manila, there have been four presidential visits from the Philippines to India—by President Ferdinand E Marcos in 1976 (stopover visit), President Fidel Ramos in 1997, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2007, and President Rodrigo Duterte in Jan 2018.
From the Indian side, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited the Philippines in 1981, followed by President R Venkatraman in 1991; President A P J Abdul Kalam in 2006, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007. More recently, PM Modi visited the country in 2017 and President Ram Nath Kovind visited it in 2019.
