PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. arrived in the United States on Wednesday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where he was warmly received by officials of the Philippine Embassy and some U.S. officials.
Marcos is in Washington for a two-day working visit with U.S President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to further strengthen the relationship among the three countries on economic and maritime cooperation.
The inaugural Trilateral Leaders’ Summit is expected to take place at the White House this Thursday.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has previously clarified that the summit is not against any country, although the Philippine government confirmed that the West Philippine Sea issue is included in the summit’s agenda.
Meanwhile, Marcos is also expected to meet with some U.S. businessmen to strengthen the country’s relationship regarding critical infrastructure, semiconductors, digitalization, and cybersecurity.
The President will also have a meeting with one of the major companies in the United States regarding nuclear energy, where he will discuss it with ultra-safe officials—one of the largest suppliers of small nodular nuclear power plants.
“We have a lot of areas where we are putting ourselves, our economic managers are putting our country into a situation where we’re opening up our economy especially in energy, which is very important for, and also, of course, digital infrastructure, and infrastructure, physical infrastructure as also one of the other aspects of our economic package that we’d like to offer for potential investors,” said Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine Ambassador to the United States.
Philippines aims to secure $100-B investment deal in Trilateral Summit
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez sees possible investment deals for President Marcos amounting to $100-B following the steps being taken by his economic managers.
“The figures that I have been hearing at, this may sound a little bit expanded in a way, but we’re talking about a hundred billion in investments in the next five to 10 years,” said Jose Romualdez.
The envoy also clarified that the said target could be achieved within 5-10 years.
The president and the Philippine delegation will stay in Washington until April 13 before returning to the Philippines.
