The Philippines and India have agreed to start negotiations on a preferential trade agreement even as they committed to explore cooperation in a wide range of areas from tourism, agriculture to health.
Enrique Manalo, secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines and Dr. S. Jaishankar, external affairs minister of India, in a joint statement on the 5th India-Philippines Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation signed on June 29 in New Delhi noted the expanding scope of ties of both countries and agreed to work together to further strengthen the bilateral partnership.
In the statement, the officials expressed satisfaction at the growing pace of bilateral trade, which had for the first time crossed the level of$3 billion in 2022 to 2023 and agreed to commence negotiations on a bilateral preferential trade agreement.
The ministers also agreed to encourage their companies to sustain their engagement, and explore new investment opportunities.
Manalo also highlighted the growing engagement between businesses on both sides, including through nearly 30 business-to-business meetings held over the past three years in different sectors.
India has earlier offered to extend concessional lines of credit for infrastructure projects, as well as for any other mutually identified projects.
Both sides agreed on an early meeting of the bilateral working group to devise concrete initiatives to expand cooperation on health, which they acknowledged as one of the priority sectors for bilateral engagement.
Both sides also emphasized the need for expanded connectivity and ease of travel to enable the growth of tourism, trade and investment and people to people exchange between the two countries.
They said the signing of the air services agreement between the Philippines and India in September 2021 would enable the airlines of both countries to explore direct flight connectivity.
They also welcomed their respective departments of tourism to come up with initiatives to further expand tourism flows, along with early scheduling of joint working group (JWG) on tourism.
On agriculture, Manalo conveyed Philippine interest in expanding collaboration on fisheries and marine culture and called for the convening of the JWG on agriculture to discuss additional areas of agricultural cooperation.
Manalo was on an official visit to India from June 27 to 30. – Irma Isip
