Video transcript · 12 min · 1,218 words

Marcos and Ramos-Horta joint press statements at Malacañan Palace: transcript

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta gave joint statements after a bilateral meeting in Manila. Marcos listed agreed areas of cooperation and backed Timor-Leste's ASEAN bid. Ramos-Horta thanked him, said Timor-Leste hopes to join ASEAN by 2025, and pointed to areas for Philippine support.

Key points

Marcos said the state visit aimed to revitalize relations; the last high-level visit was in 2013.
The leaders agreed to have ministries pursue policy consultations, direct flights through an air services agreement, and a bilateral social security agreement.
They committed to more educational cooperation, student exchanges and technical skills training, including a food processing project.
Marcos said Ramos-Horta shared suggestions and support on the West Philippine Sea and rules-based international law.
Marcos reaffirmed support for Timor-Leste's full ASEAN membership, noting the roadmap adopted at the 42nd ASEAN Summit.
Ramos-Horta said Timor-Leste aims to join ASEAN in 2025, is at peace, and wants Philippine help on human resources, students, diplomats and health.

Chapters

0:08Marcos opens the joint press event
2:07Agreed areas of cooperation
3:43West Philippine Sea and rules-based order
5:24Support for Timor-Leste's ASEAN membership
6:05Ramos-Horta thanks Marcos, targets 2025 for ASEAN
9:59Timor-Leste's situation and hopes for Philippine support

Full transcript

0:08May we invite the members of the Philippine and Timorese delegations to take their seats. May we invite His Excellency Ferdinand R. Marcus, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines, to deliver his statement to be followed by His Excellency Jose Ramos Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Good morning, our friends from the media. I am pleased to inform you and the Filipino people of the outcomes of the state visit of his XNC, President Jose Ramos Horta, of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

0:49This state visit aimed to revitalize bilateral relations between the Republic of the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Timor-leste. The last high-level visit between our two countries was in 2013 when the former president, Sanana Guzmao, visited the Philippines. I am pleased that President Ramos Horta has accepted my invitation and is here with us in Manila today. He is a good friend of the Philippines and I am happy to note that this visit of the President is not the first visit that he has made.

1:32It is one of many visits that he has made to the Philippines. And so, today, we will adopt him as an honorary Filipino. Today, we took the opportunity to study our existing platforms of cooperations and of partnerships, as well as we discussed matters of great importance to both our nations, particularly in the fields of political cooperation and in people-to-people exchanges.

2:07The President and I committed to direct our respective ministries to further the negotiations in following fields. To reconvene the policy consultations that are hosted by Timor-Leste in the near future. There are many aspects to that consultation that will further the relations between our two countries. We should like to also explore the possibilities of having direct flights between our capitals through an air services agreement.

2:42And also establish a bilateral social security agreement to be a safety net for both our country's professionals working in each other's country. To strengthen educational cooperation as well between our higher learning institutions and increase our student exchanges. In addition, as one of the democracies in Southeast Asia, the Philippines also committed to assist Timor-Leste in the skills formation of the Timor-Leste people.

3:12In recent months, under the direction of our Technical Cooperation Council of the Philippines, an attached agency of the Department of Foreign Affairs, we have deployed a team from our Department of Science and Technology who assisted the Timorese people in enhancing skills on food processing. We committed to increase engagements in such technical cooperation and we have tasked our respective ministries to explore and enhance future partnerships on this matter.

3:43I would also like to, I'm very happy to report that beyond the formalities of these exchanges, President Horta and I had a very productive and interesting discussion on the mechanisms and the modalities that we, with the experience of His Excellency in international affairs, the many suggestions and mechanisms that he brought to light that can be of use to the Philippines when it comes to the challenges that we are presently facing in the issues that are regarding in the South China Sea or as we refer to it the West Philippine Sea. And this is with gratitude that we also have received the expressions of support from the President for the Philippines in terms of the rules, our adherence to rules-based international law, to UNCLOS,

4:51and of all the different issues that we are facing, geopolitical issues that we are facing around the world. Once again, the experience of the President has shown what the Philippines can do to further our discussion and our argument as to the continued adherence of all parties to a rules-based system and international law.

5:24And for that, I thank him very much. And on a final note, I also take this opportunity to affirm the Philippines' support to Timor-Leste's membership bid in ASEAN. I recall that during the recent 42nd ASEAN Summit in Indonesia, we ASEAN leaders adopted the roadmap for Timor-Leste's full membership in ASEAN. We strive to pursue this work alongside our ASEAN brothers and sisters and we look forward to seeing Timor-Leste's status in ASEAN be successfully elevated from an observer as it is now to a full member in the very near future.

6:05With that, thank you very much. Maraming salamat po. Excellency, President, dear friend. First, my sincere gratitude for your warmest hospitality to me and to my delegation. With me here is Foreign Minister Benito Freitas. And to thank you for for the support you have provided us, given to us in our ASEAN membership application and supporting capacity building as we endeavor to meet, to implement the roadmap in the shortest

7:06as possible time. We have set for ourselves 2025 as ideal for us to join ASEAN, but obviously that's subject to agreement on the ASEAN country. This means only to force upon ourselves to to work harder in implementing the roadmap. I have been to the Philippines numerous times over the years, very impressed with the situation today of peace, of stability, investors trust confidence in the Philippines, great economic growth in a whole situation that is not very conducive to economic growth as we all know around the world.

8:04of Philippines, very unique. I would listen to your statement, Mr. President. I would consider it now with a joint statement. I subscribe to everything your Excellency stated, so I don't need to elaborate any further. Let's expand, upgrade the relationship relationship between our two countries. We are newer, only 21 years since Restoration of Independence. Philippines is over 100 years, almost 200 million people with extraordinary rich experience.

8:53So we are guided by you, your, I wouldn't say fatherly sympathy, because I'm older than you, so it'd be difficult to say fatherly. I would say brotherly, fraternal support. For me, visiting Philippines is coming back to Philippines. I've been here many times, numerous friends across the Philippines, not only in Manila but everywhere, and overseas.

9:29We have a Filipino community, the ambassador of the Philippines is here with us. You cannot have a warmer, more productive, healthy relationship between two countries than the one enjoyable Timor-Leste in the Philippines. All elements that Your Excellency referred to, yes, we are going to realize them.

9:59Timor-Leste today is completely at peace. We have zero political violence, zero ethnic-based or religious-based tensions of violence. Economically, prospects for great recovery and growth in the next few years. We have a new government, less than six months in office, working hard to implement its very ambitious program for the next five years.

10:29And I believe that there is plenty of room for the Philippines to participate in supporting us in our endeavor to improve our economy and live in the standards of the people. On human resources, on the students, continuing to come to Timor-Leste, training of our diplomats, our officials across the board on the health sector, our medical doctors to come to Philippines for upgrading their knowledge, their understanding, etc.

11:07So there is no, we should be able to explore and implement all of this. I thank you, Your Excellency. Thank you. His Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the joint press event. Thank you and good day to all.

Source and licence

Recording: File:President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines and President José Ramos-Horta of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joint press conference at the President’s Hall, Malacañan Palace on 10 November 2023.webm by Philippine Government - Radio Television Malacañang (2023-11-10), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.