Bilateral Meeting with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore 08/15/2024

State Dining Room, Malacañan Palace
August 15, 2024

Focusing on strengthening the partnership between their nations across various sectors, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore held a bilateral meeting at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace on August 15, 2024.

In his opening statement, President Marcos Jr. highlighted the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Defense Cooperation by the Defense Ministers in July.

He also noted the progress made during the 6th Informal Consultations on the Bilateral Action Plan in February which led to the conclusion of several MOUs, including those on the recruitment of healthcare workers and collaboration on carbon credits which are set to be exchanged.

President Marcos Jr. also emphasized the Philippines' commitment to fostering closer ties with Singapore in various areas, including defense, trade and sustainability.

"The Philippines remains optimistic in fostering closer and enhanced cooperation with Singapore in existing areas such as defense and security, trade and investment, and new areas such as sustainability and in energy," he conveyed.

Looking ahead, the President revealed upcoming collaborations between Philippine local governments and Singaporean private sector partners to further strengthen bilateral relations.

For his part, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam expressed his optimism for the future of Philippines-Singapore relations under President Marcos Jr.'s leadership.

He emphasized the importance of not merely maintaining the status quo but advancing the relationship to a new level of mutual benefit.

"We are making fine progress and it’s a phase of our relationship that shouldn’t be business as normal, incremental change after each meeting. But we really want to take it on a new trajectory. Under your leadership, I’m confident we’ll be able to achieve that," he said.

In a gesture of camaraderie, President Tharman congratulated Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo for his remarkable achievement of winning two gold medals in the Olympics, making him the only athlete from Southeast Asia to achieve such a feat.

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