A meeting between Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and US President Barack Obama will likely happen in May or June, US Ambassador Harry Thomas said Friday.
“In either May or June, President Obama and President Aquino will meet at the White House,” Thomas told reporters in a chance interview after the Vin d’Honneur at Malacañang.
“As you know, when Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton was here in November, she extended the invitation to President Aquino to come to Washington. Right after that, President Aquino went to the East Asia Summit in Indonesia, where he had a one-on-one with President Obama and President Obama again extended the invitation,” he added.
Asked what will be the agenda of the meeting, Thomas said it is “for the Presidents to decide.”
Before the meeting between the two heads of state, a bilateral strategic dialogue will take place in Washington at the end of January, attended by US and Philippine Defense and Foreign Affairs undersecretaries and assistant secretaries.
It will be the second such dialogue between Washington and Manila, the first of which was held in the Philippines in January 2011.
Next March, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario will meet with their counterparts — Secretaries Leon Panetta and Clinton — also in Washington.
Thomas also jested reporters, saying there will be a fourth meeting: between Filipino boxing champion and Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
“So we really have four things: bilateral strategic dialogue, secretaries of defense and foreign affairs meeting each other, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, and then President Obama and President Aquino, okay?” Thomas said. There is no final word yet on whether the much-awaited Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will take place this year.
On the Spratlys and disaster relief
On other issues, Thomas said the US is “looking for other ways to assist, especially in the areas of maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”
“The United States is the largest provider of military assistance to the Philippines, has been for the past 10 years. We have given one Cutter to the Philippines — the del Pilar, which is now the largest ship in your Navy,” he said.
He maintained that the US takes no side on the issue of Spratlys.
“We very much think that everything should be resolved at the negotiating table, through a multilateral effort. We very much support the Code of Conduct,” Thomas said.
Aside from the Philippines, the other countries claiming parts or the whole of Spratly islands are China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia. — VS, GMA News
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PNoy-Obama Washington meet in May or June – US Ambassador Thomas
GMA News Online – Fri, Jan 13, 2012
View PhotoBALI, Indonesia – Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III meets with United States of America President Barack Obama during their bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the 19th Association of Southeast
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