Mr. President, before I begin, I’d like to thank you very much for your warm hospitality and excellent arrangements extended to us in the Philippine delegation during my State Visit to Beijing.

Second, it was a successful visit, which opened a new chapter in the Philippine-China relations and signified our agencies to fast-track mutually beneficial areas of cooperation.

Mr. President, at this time, may I invite you to visit the Philippines at a mutually agreeable date. We would be happy to see you in my country.

Though it was a short visit, it has produced a lot of goodwill in my country and we hope to remain a good friend of China.

And as I have given you my word, we will cooperate with you and I said, with my thrust of an independent foreign policy, we will find ourselves mutually agreeing in so many things and align our foreign policy towards the development of Asia, strengthening of ties among the countries in the region, with China leading the way in the economic development… [media led out of the meeting room]