By
Jelly Musico
January
25, 2018
MANILA
-- President Rodrigo Duterte and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have
agreed to expand bilateral ties particularly on trade and security cooperation.
 |
| Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Presidential Photo) |
Presidential
Spokesperson Harry Roque said the two leaders met for more than
one hour right
after President Duterte arrived in New Delhi Wednesday night to attend the
India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit and India’s Republic Day celebration.
“The
two heads of states agreed that relations, while already very good, will even
be better and that there will be further bilateral negotiations on issues
involving trade and even military cooperation in the next two months,” Roque
said in a press conference at the International Media Center in New Delhi.
Roque
said President Duterte has emphasized that India and the Association of
Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) must cooperate militarily in combating
modern-day terrorism and threat of piracy.
He
said Duterte has manifested his interest to purchase Indian weapons after Modi
told him that India have expertise in ships and other military hardware.
“There
was a commitment, in fact, for the Philippines to purchase Indian military hardware,”
Roque said.
Roque
added that the Filipino leader took some time explaining his war on drugs to
the Indian Prime Minister who “responded very positively.”
“When
the Prime Minister expressed his support for the ongoing concern of Philippine
President Duterte against drugs. He in fact said that there might be a need for
international cooperation to deal with the menace of drugs,” Roque said.
He
said the Philippine President highlighted that the threat to terrorism in the
Philippines and in the region is also financed partly through the trafficking
in drugs.
“In
particularly, the Prime Minister said that he realizes that the threat of drugs
to young people is very, very serious. He said that he has in fact raised the
issue of the drug menace in the G13 Summit emphasizing that drug traffickers
used proceeds from their illicit trade to fund terrorist activities,” Roque
told the media.
Roque
said Duterte also raised with Modi the idea of coming out with a platform to
combat terrorism and piracy.
“He
says that ASEAN should not just be an economic body, that ASEAN should consider
being active militarily to combat the threat of modern-day terrorism. He was
referring, of course, to both ISIS- type of terrorism which is a problem to the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even southern Thailand and he was talking
about international terrorism at sea which is piracy in the Indo-Pacific
navigation route,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines
has submitted seven Letters of Intent and two Memoranda of Understanding to
India.
“We
had basically about nine agreements with them on how we can expand and
strengthen our trade and investment relationship,” Lopez said in the same press
briefing.
