Marcos reiterates Philippines' 'neutral foreign policy'

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Wednesday reiterated the country's "neutral foreign policy" as he emphasized that the Philippines is not siding with any nation.

Marcos mentioned this during a meeting with recently appointed Filipino chiefs of mission and ambassadors in Malacañang Palace wherein he stressed that the Philippines has to cope with the changing times amid the present global situation.

“We do not subscribe to any notion of a bipolar world. We only side, of course, to the Philippines, not to the US, not to Beijing, not to Moscow. That’s very much being independent in what we do,” Marcos said

Last month at a forum in Washington, the President mentioned the Philippines' foreign policy of being "a friend to all and enemy to none" as he stressed that the country's foreign policy is based on promoting peace and national interest.

Meanwhile, Marcos also called on Filipino ambassadors to continuously look for "non-traditional" partners when it comes to trade as well as the security and defense requirements of the country.

“We are constantly now, after all the changes that have been imposed upon us, like the pandemic economy and the world situation, looking for what we sometimes referred to as non-traditional partners in trades, in any kind, in security and defense issues.  All these things, we are always looking for partners,” Marcos said.

The President also urged the envoys to explore and discuss with him the opportunities that might be beneficial to the country and to Filipinos.

“I’m sure you have heard that we are prioritizing agriculture, energy, all of the infrastructure development, and digitalization. Now, if there are opportunities that would come up, you should explore them and if they're promising enough, then we’ll take it up. We’ll try to see if something can come up. There’s no harm in trying and kung anuman ang mangyari, at least we tried,” he said.

“So let us keep looking at those areas. And also what I found many times, you go there and you talk about agri and something else comes up," Marcos added.

Those who attended the meeting with the President were Chief of Mission Carlos Deymek Sorreta, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Henry Sicad Bensurto Jr. (Republic of Turkiye), Renato Pedro Oabel Villa (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Raul Salavarria Hernandez (Sultanate of Oman), Paul Raymund Pasion Cortez (Portuguese Republic), Joel Francisco Ignacio (Republic of India), and Maria Angela Abrera Ponce (Malaysia). —VAL, GMA Integrated News