00:00For today, I leave for an official visit to Washington, D.C. upon the invitation of the
00:08President of the United States, Donald Trump. It is my first visit to Washington following
00:14the inauguration of President Trump earlier this year. I'm happy to note that this visit
00:19is the first by an ASEAN head of state to the United States under this administration.
00:25This visit builds on the active exchanges that we have had since the assumption of the
00:30new Trump administration. These include the various bilateral meetings between our Secretary
00:36of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Secretary of State, the visit to Manila of the U.S. Secretary of
00:42Defense in March, and also of the Director of National Intelligence last month, as well
00:49as the visits of bipartisan U.S. congressional delegations.
00:53My visit to Washington, D.C., and most importantly, my meeting with President Trump, is essential
00:59to continuing to advance our national interests and strengthening our alliance. During this
01:07visit, we will reaffirm our commitment to fostering our long-standing alliances as an instrument
01:13of peace and a catalyst of development in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.
01:20My top priority for this visit is to push for greater economic engagement, particularly
01:26through trade and investment between the Philippines and the United States. I intend to convey to
01:33President Trump and his Cabinet officials that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral
01:39trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial, and future-oriented collaborations that only the
01:46United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of.
01:51As with my previous visits to different countries, I expect to meet with business leaders to explore
01:58business opportunities that will help to grow our economy even more. As you will notice in the
02:07attendance of the cabinet secretaries here today, our cabinet secretaries for defense and for the economic
02:17team as well are not here simply because they are already there and have been there for a few days to
02:26prepare the groundwork for the work that we are doing whilst I am actually there. And so I expect our
02:35our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also on trade. And we will see how much
02:46progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we
02:54would like to institute so as to be able to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines.
03:04With that, thank you very much and good morning.
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