Marcos seeks stronger ties with Chile on agriculture

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is expecting the visit of Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren to the Philippines to further strengthen ties and cooperation between the two countries.

“I’ll make certain that everything, the time that you spend here, will be as productive as possible and will further the relations between our two countries,” Marcos said during the Chilean minister’s courtesy call in Malacañang on Friday.

The President further said that there is great potential in future tie-ups between the Philippines and Chile with regard to agriculture, specifically cacao cultivation and processing.

“Because it’s slowly becoming an important crop. We are trying to promote it. And you have, I think, the best technologies when it comes to that product... There are other investments that we were trying to explore,” he said.

“Although physical distance used to be a problem or an obstacle, that does not apply any longer. So, I think there’s much that we can do to further the relations and the partnerships between our two countries,” the President said.

Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque, who was also present during the call, mentioned fish and mineral exports from Mindanao.

“[There are] skin beauty products and other things that we can [explore on]… And also the agriculture sector and the seafood products that we can export to them,” Roque said.

She cited the deep-sea port that was opened in Peru for the benefit of Asian products going to South America.

Marcos also expressed gratitude to Chile for confirming its support for the Philippines' bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2027-2028, in exchange for the country’s support for Chile’s candidature to the same body for the term 2029-2030.

For his part, Klaveren said he had a ''very productive'' visit despite his short stay.

“We have had a very productive meeting with (Philippine Foreign) Secretary (Enrique) Manalo… and we talked about our bilateral relations, about regional and global issues, and about the potential of our bilateral relations,” Klaveren told the President.

The Philippines and Chile established diplomatic relations on July 4, 1946. The two countries celebrated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2021.

In 2023, Chile was the Philippines’ 49th trading partner (out of 230), 47th export market (out of 205), and 50th import supplier (out of 221). — VBL, GMA Integrated News