President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. welcomed on Tuesday in Malacañang the non-resident ambassadors-designate of Belarus, Ghana, Turkmenistan, Malta, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua, to find ways to strengthen the relationship between the Philippines and the countries they represent.
Among those who presented their letters of credence to President Marcos are Belarus Non-Resident Ambassador-designate Raman Ramanouski, Florence Buerki Akonor of the Republic of Ghana, Atadurdy Bayramov of Turkmenistan, and John Busuttil of the Republic of Malta.
They were joined by Jaime Yorquis Francisco Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic and Sandy Anabell Dávila Sandoval of the Republic of Nicaragua who also presented their credentials to the President.
In welcoming the Ambassador-designate of Nicaragua, President Marcos expressed hope that Nicaragua and the Philippines will “continue to develop the relations between our two countries” despite the distance.
“Although, we are far away I believe that distance, we should not allow distance to get in the way of our continuing relations and I hope you should learn more about the Philippines and that you will be able to explore some other possibilities… to the mutual benefit of our countries,” said the President.
The Philippines and Nicaragua established their bilateral relations on August 10, 1973, with total trade between the two nations amounting to US$1.4 million last year.
Nicaragua ranks as the Philippines’ 142nd trading partner, 133rd import supplier, and 129th export market.
For his part, Belarusian Ambassador-designate Raman Ramanouski said he looks forward to bolster the Philippine-Belarus constructive bilateral collaboration in various sectors like trade and investment, food security, science and education, visa facilitation, as well as multilateral cooperation, in the framework of universal and regional organizations.
The Philippines and Belarus maintain 27 years of bilateral relations after establishing ties on May 22, 1996. Belarus ranked as the Philippines’ 83rd trading partner, with total trade between them amounting to US$10.1 million in 2023.
As to the country’s relations with the Dominican Republic, President Marcos hopes that the two nations “can find new ways to strengthen the relationship between our two countries who have very much shared history and experiences of the past few centuries.”
“So, I think that gives us a very good foundation to build on,” he said.
The two nations forged their bilateral relations on November 2, 1952 and recorded a total trade amounting to US$27.3 million last year.
In receiving Ambassador-designate Buerki Akonor of the Republic of Ghana, Marcos hopes her arrival “will be the beginning of many good things for the benefit of our people.”
Bilateral relations between Ghana and the Philippines were established on March 6, 1957. The African country is the Philippines’ 108th trading partner. PND
