GMA to visit US, Hanoi; eyes Spain

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo will visit Washington and Hanoi next month in what could be her last foreign trips, as her term ends on June 30.

Arrangements are also being made for a possible visit to Spain towards the end of April, officials said.

Mrs. Arroyo will visit Washington to attend the Nuclear Security Summit on April 12 to 13. Some 40 heads of state are expected to attend the summit to be hosted by US President Barack Obama.

“The purpose of the summit is to discuss steps we can collectively take to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last month.

Obama, during his first State of the Union Address, stressed the importance of the summit, saying nuclear weapons are “perhaps the greatest danger to the American people.”

Officials said there is no word yet on whether Mrs. Arroyo would hold bilateral talks with Obama but did not discount the possibility of “pull-aside meetings” at the sidelines of the summit.

Mrs. Arroyo would attend the summit to represent the upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May where the Philippines was elected president, with Ambassador Libran Cabactulan as country representative.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo urged nuclear experts and negotiators last month to achieve significant progress to rid the world of nuclear weapons in an NPT workshop in Manila.

Before the visit to Washington, Mrs. Arroyo is scheduled to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 18.

It was not yet clear whether the President would proceed straight to Hanoi from Washington or return to Manila first. It was also possible that she would visit Filipino communities in the US en route to Hanoi.

Officials said arrangements are being made if Mrs. Arroyo could proceed straight to Spain from Hanoi. - Paolo Romero