NANAWAGAN si Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. sa mga ambassador ng bansa na ipagpatuloy ang paghahanap ng ‘non-traditional’ partners na makakatuwang ng Pilipinas sa pangangalakal, seguridad at pagpapatatag ng depensa nito.

Ginawa ni Pangulong Marcos ang panawagan sa pakikipagpulong nito sa mga chiefs of mission at ambassadors sa Malacanang kung saan iginiit nito ang pangangailangan na mabilis na makabangon ang bansa mula sa epekto ng pandemya.

“We are constantly now- after all the changes that have been imposed upon us, like the pandemic economy and the world situation, looking for what we sometimes referred to as non-traditional partners in trades, in any kind, in security and defense issues. All these things, we are always looking for partners,” ani Pangulong Marcos.

Muli ring sinabi ng Pangulo na ang kanyang administrasyon ay nananatiling neutral pagdating sa foreign policy at walang kinikilingang bansa.

“We do not subscribe to any notion of a bipolar world . We only side, of course, to the Philippines, not to the US, not to Beijing, not to Moscow. That’s very much being independent in what we do,” sabi ni Marcos.

Hinimok din ng Pangulo ang mga envoy na makipagtalakayan sa kanya kaugnay ng mga oportunidad na maaaring makuha ng bansa para sa ikabubuti ng mga Pilipino.

“I’m sure you have heard that we are prioritizing agriculture, energy, all of the infrastructure development, and digitalization. Now, if there are opportunities that would come up, you should explore them and if they’re promising enough, then we’ll take it up. We’ll try to see if something can come up. There’s no harm in trying and kung anuman ang mangyari, at least we tried,” dagdag pa ng Pangulo.

“So let us keep looking at those areas. And also what I found many times, you go there and you talk about agri and something else comes up.”

Kasama sa pagpupulong sina Chief of Mission Carlos Deymek Sorreta, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Henry Sicad Bensurto Jr. (Republic of Turkiye), Renato Pedro Oabel Villa (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Raul Salavarria Hernandez (Sultanate of Oman), Paul Raymund Pasion Cortez (Portuguese Republic), Joel Francisco Ignacio (Republic of India), at Maria Angela Abrera Ponce (Malaysia).