President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. is invited to take part in the UN Climate Change Conference’s 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in November in Egypt.
In a press briefing, Ambassador Ahmed Shehabeldin Ibrahim of Egypt announced that he extended the invitation to Marcos Jr during his courtesy call on Monday.
“Today, I had the pleasure to meet his Excellency, President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and I submitted to him an official congratulations from the Egyptian President, his Excellency Abdel Fattah (Saeed Hussein Khalil) el-Sisi… I also took this opportunity to extend the invitation of his Excellency… to take part in November in COP27,” he said.
Ibrahim added that Marcos Jr will “consider hard” to be there because “he believes in the climate change issues.”
COP27 will bring the international community together to accelerate global efforts in addressing the climate crisis. As science shows how the climate rapidly changes, there is an urgent need for the implementation of various measures to alleviate its emissions by 2030.
In the ambassador’s courtesy call with Marcos, they exchanged prospects of developing the bilateral relations between Egypt and the Philippines.
The ambassador said Egypt is keen on strengthening its relations with the Philippines by developing other areas of cooperation such as agriculture and tourism.
“… Egypt is really, really keen to develop the bilateral relation(s) with the Philippines, being one of (the) key parts of international relations,” he said.
Russia and the Philippines
In a separate courtesy call on Monday, Russian Ambassador Marat Pavlov discussed with Marcos their intentions of improving their “traditionally friendly relations” with the Philippines.
Pavlov also assured that the Russian Federation is willing to extend assistance to the Philippines with its energy resources amid the oil price hikes brought by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“In this turbulent period of our life, the Russian Federation could extend its hand to help the Philippines in much-needed oil, gas, and other sources of energies,” he said.
Pavlov expressed Russia’s willingness to enhance different areas of cooperation with the Philippines, which include people-to-people connectivities and interregional ties, among others.
Meanwhile, Marcos also confirmed the same intentions of cooperating with the Russian Federation but will continue his independent policy in connection with the Russia-Ukraine war.
ADB and the Marcos Administration
Asian Development Bank President Masatsugu Asakawa also recently paid a courtesy call to Marcos. Asakawa assured Marcos of ADB’s strong commitment to supporting the incoming administration’s development priorities.
Asakawa said that the ADB is working closely with the government development partners and the private sector to support infrastructure investment, including projects under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
He also said that the ADB is ready to support the country in addressing climate change and implementing programs in the health and education sector.
Asakawa added that the ADB will also show support for agricultural development and food security, as well as investments in climate-smart transportation, vocational skills training, employment programs, and social protection, among others.
Photo Credit: BBM Media Bureau