PRESIDENT FERDINAND ROMUALDEZ MARCOS JR.: Thank you very much, of course, His Excellency Papal Nuncio and all the members of the Diplomatic Corps; the special envoys who have come to join us on this auspicious day. I thank you all for bringing us the honor of your presence here today.

Furthermore, I thank you for the very kind wishes of congratulations from your countries, from your governments, from your heads of state, and for the continuing offer that you have made to the Philippines for support and partnership in the future.

As I think we it is — it has become very clear and I think I may be repeating myself to some of you since we have spoken before, but I still believe that the transformation of the world economy and our recovery from the pandemic will be dependent on our partners and our allies and it will be those partnerships that will strengthen that recovery, that will make a more balanced and stable new global environment for us to work in.

I was especially struck by the importance that all of your countries have come to put on climate change. I believe that it was unanimous, all the ambassadors, all the representatives from the different countries who I have met with — have each made offers of help in terms of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

As I mentioned in my speech, it is something that is terribly important simply because for the Philippines, we are very much in the most vulnerable position that many — compared to many other countries. So I thank you all for that.

And I cannot think of a most — of a better beginning to a new administration than to be able to have determined the partnerships and strengthen the relationships between our countries. And that is something that we will work with very, very clearly.

We have seen and it has been proven to us very clearly in the past weeks and months, how interconnected the world is now, how interconnected the economies are, how interconnected the political systems are, how interconnected even our cultural and educational relationships are.

We can only go from here to strength and to strength and to strength. And for that I — that is what I look forward to, the day will come when we can say that we have built upon the strong foundation that we came upon.

And so if you would care to join me in a toast. A toast to you all, to our partners, our friends around the world who have done us the honor of coming and join us to commemorate this extremely important day, and to thank you for the partnership and the hands of partnership that you have offered, and to toast to the strengthening of our continuing relationships between the Philippines and your country. Cheers! Mabuhay kayo! [applause]

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