GMA to hold bilateral talks at Asean summit

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key at the sidelines of the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand this week.

Mrs. Arroyo has decided to push through with her trip tonight to Bangkok after typhoon “Ramil” weakened as it moved towards northern Luzon, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said.

“We’ve made a decision to go ahead with the President’s participation in the ASEAN summit because it would seem that Ramil, by the grace of God, is not going to affect us as bad as we feared,” Remonde said.

Among the issues to be raised in the President’s meeting with Hatoyama are Japan’s assistance to typhoon victims, strategic relations between the two countries, the implementation of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, and the Philippines’ request for “budgetary assistance.”

With Key, Mrs. Arroyo is expected to discuss New Zealand’s contribution to typhoon victims and its participation in the reconstruction effort and the proposed ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.

The President will also solicit support from the ASEAN and its partners for the success of the Philippine presidency of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York in May 2010.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Trade Secretary Peter Favila will join the President in Thailand. – Paolo Romero, Pia Lee Brago, Christina Mendez