Philippines, Singapore boost bilateral ties

Thursday, April 03, 2014 19:32

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and his visiting Singaporeancounterpart Tony Tan Keng Yam on April 3 agreed on several measures tofurther strengthen the two countries’ bilateral relations.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Aquino said that he proposedorganising a defence dialogue in order to intensify the two countries’defence and security ties, which, he believes, is key to maintainingstability in the region.

Both exchanged views onrestarting the Philippines-Singapore Action Plan, which is considered amechanism expanding discussions between the two countries and boostingtheir cooperation in trade, investment, information technology,education and culture.

The Philippine leaderstated that he also discussed with his Singaporean counterpart expandingbilateral ties to infrastructure, tourism, shipbuilding and logisticsservices.

The Singaporean leader congratulatedthe Philippine Government on reaching the Comprehensive Agreement onBangsamoro with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on March 27, andpledged to work closely with the government to boost ASEAN interest.

Tony Tan is on a four-day State-level visit to the Philippines. This is his first trip to the country.

Singapore is now the Philippines’ fourth largest trade partner with two-way trade hitting 8.22 billion USD in 2013.-VNA

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