This is the first Prime Ministerial visit to the Philippines from India in 36 years since the visit by Indira Gandhi in 1981.
MANILA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met US President Donald Trump and a host of leaders soon after arriving in Philippines’s capital, Manila for the India-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.
PM Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull among others.
The leaders were uniformly dressed in Barong Tagalong, an embroidered shirt that is the national dress of the Philippines.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the India-Asean dialogue partnership and the golden jubilee of the formation of the Asean.The brief interaction between PM Modi and Trump came ahead of their scheduled bilateral meeting on Monday.
The PM had also asserted that he was confident that his visit to Manila will give a new boost to India’s bilateral relations with the Philippines, and also further strengthen the politico-security, economic and socio-cultural pillars of India’s engagement with ASEAN.
The two leaders are expected to deliberate on a number of key issues of mutual interest including the evolving security situation in the Indo-Pacific region.
On Tuesday, Modi will attend the ASEAN-India and East Asia summits where he is likely to reassert India’s push for crafting a global approach to deal with growing challenge of terrorism and radicalisation.
