MANILA: President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (pic) “will cooperate with the Russian Federation” on several fronts, including energy and people to people connectivity, Moscow’s ambassador in Manila said on Monday.
Russian Ambassador Marat Pavlov gave the statement when asked about Marcos Jr.’s earlier call for Moscow to respect Ukraine’s freedom and democratic way of life.
“As far as I understand, President-elect would like to continue his independent policy and he will cooperate with the Russian Federation,” Pavlov said in a press conference.
“The Russian Federation is ready to improve our traditionally friendly relations between our countries in many areas of cooperation because it meets the interests of our nations,” he said.
Moscow has also offered to “satisfy” the Philippines’ “needs in sources of energy” considering the “turbulent period of our life.”
In March, Marcos Jr. called for a peaceful resolution to the Russo-Ukrainian War, noting his “appeal for sobriety to prevail.”
While the Philippines voted in favor of condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Marcos said there is no need for Filipinos to take sides in the conflict in Europe.
“I don’t think there’s a need to take a stand; we are not involved, except for our nationals,” Marcos said in an earlier interview.
Marcos’ incoming national security adviser said the next administration would be neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the country can take advantage of Moscow’s petroleum resources.
“Andyan lang yung Russia (Russia is there), they are also pivoting to our area. We should take advantage of that,” she said.
Russian forces invaded parts of Ukraine in February, claiming that they had to defend separatists in the eastern part of the country.
And, Egyptian Ambassador to the Philippines Ahmed Shehabeldin Ibrahim on Monday Marcos to attend the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).
Egypt will host the annual conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in November.
“This topic we talked about how just the international community to respond to the challenges of climate change and both share just probably we are different in geography and climate nature, however, we share the main concerns,” he said in a press conference after his courtesy visit on the Philippines’ 17th President.
“He would like to be there. He believes in the climate change issues and to be closely just following what would be the way forward,” he said.
Egypt is “really keen to develop the bilateral relations” with the Philippines, a country which is considered as “one of the key spots of international relations,” the ambassador said.
“We are looking forward to develop many areas of cooperation since we are both agricultural countries and we can work for tourism and many aspects of cooperation,” he said.
“It was really fruitful [meeting] and we will follow up with that,” he said.
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