President Rodrigo Duterte was scheduled to fly to South Korea at around 11.30 Saturday night on his first official visit to the Land of the Morning Calm where he is expected to reaffirm long-standing ties with the East Asian nation.
On Sunday, the first of three days he will be there, the President is expected to meet with the 68,000-strong Filipino community in South Korea at the Grand Hilton. He will be back in Manila Tuesday night.
He is set to meet his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Monday at the Blue House, where the two leaders are expected to reaffirm ties ahead of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two sides.
Moon invited Duterte for a visit during the East Asia Summit in Manila last November.
“The significance of this visit refers back to basically conveying to the Republic of Korea the importance of its partnership with the Philippines and to reaffirm the strength of Philippines-Republic of Korea relations,” Foreign Undersecretary Ernesto Abella told a Palace press briefing Friday.
Duterte and Moon are expected to discuss the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City.
But it is not clear whether Duterte and Moon will discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula amid recent developments on the matter.
The two nations, which fought side by side with other allies during the Korean War in the 1950s, are also expected to sign agreements on transportation, science and technology, and trade as well as a loan agreement for the new Cebu International Container Port.
Abella had earlier said Manila was seeking to acquire access to the South Korean market for fruits and vegetables.