DFA chief, G7 diplomats to tackle Indo-Pacific security

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will meet with his counterparts from seven industrialized nations during the expanded Group of Seven Ministerial Meeting in Italy next week, the DFA said yesterday.

Manalo left for Italy yesterday to participate in the event slated on Nov. 25-26, upon the invitation of Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Italy holds the rotating G7 presidency this year.

“Secretary Manalo is expected to exchange views on Indo-Pacific regional security with the foreign ministers of Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States,” the DFA said. The European Union is also represented at the G7 meetings.

During the visit, Manalo is also scheduled to meet with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states.

Meetings with senior Italian officials to discuss bilateral cooperation are being arranged.

Manalo is also scheduled to meet with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General Qu Dongyu, attend the launch of the Mirei Exhibit.

Loida Lewis named to MC board

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has nominated Filipino-American leader and businesswoman Loida Nicolas Lewis as a member of the board of directors of the US foreign aid agency Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), according to the White House.

Lewis is chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice LLC, a family investment firm, and of TLC Beatrice International, a $2-billion multinational food company with operations across Europe, from 1994 to 2007.

A lawyer by profession, Lewis was the first Filipino woman to pass the New York Bar without attending law school in the United States. When she won her discrimination case against the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, she integrated the agency and worked as General Attorney in the New York Federal office from 1978 to 1988.

She assumed the leadership of TLC Beatrice International upon the death of her husband, lawyer and Wall Street financier Reginald F. Lewis, who in 1987 engineered a leveraged buyout for $985 million of Beatrice International Foods, becoming the first African-American to acquire a billion-dollar company.

Lewis is chair of the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, which is a benefactor of Harvard Law School, the Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Virginia State University and the Lewis College in Sorsogon, her hometown in the Philippines.

She is also co-founder of several advocacy organizations: Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, National Federation of Filipino American Associations and US Filipinos for Good Governance.

Lewis has two daughters and five grandchildren.

The MCC is a US government agency helping lead the fight against global poverty through sustainable economic growth. Created by Congress in 2004, MCC operates based on the guiding principles of competitive selection, country-led design, country-led implementation and a focus on results.