Thank you Chief Luc, Executive Secretary, for your introduction.

[Please take your seats.]

The AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner and the major service commanders; Philippine National Police Chief General Nic Torre; Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gavan; my fellow workers in government; ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning.

Good morning and for today, I leave for an Official Visit to Washington, D.C. upon the invitation of the President of the United States Donald Trump.

It is my first visit to Washington following the inauguration of President Trump earlier this year.

I’m happy to note that this visit is the first by an ASEAN head of state to the United States under this administration.

This visit builds on the active exchanges that we have had since the assumption of the new Trump administration.

These include the various bilateral meetings between our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Secretary of State, the visit to Manila of the U.S. Secretary of Defense in March, and also of the Director of National Intelligence last month, as well as the visits of bipartisan U.S. Congressional Delegations.

My visit to Washington, D.C., and most importantly, my meeting with President Trump, is essential to continuing to advance our national interests and strengthening our alliance.

During this visit, we will reaffirm our commitment to fostering our long-standing alliances as an instrument of peace and a catalyst of development in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

My top priority for this visit is to push for greater economic engagement, particularly through trade and investment between the Philippines and the United States.

I intend to convey to President Trump and his Cabinet officials that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of.

As with my previous visits to different countries, I expect to meet with business leaders to explore business opportunities that will help to grow our economy even more.

And as you will notice in the attendance of the Cabinet secretaries here today, our Cabinet Secretaries for Defense and for – and the economic team as well are not here simply because they are already there and have been there for a few days to prepare the groundwork for the work that we are doing whilst I am actually there.

And so we – I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also on trade.

And we will see how much progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we would like to institute so as to be able to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines.

With that, thank you very much and good morning. [applause]

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