PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will make a three-day state visit to Brunei Darussalam beginning October 16 after canceling a visit originally scheduled for early September because of the Davao City night market bombing.
Duterte will be officially welcome on Monday at the Istana Nurul Iman followed by bilateral talks with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah that will be held at the king’s residence with a state banquet to be held Monday evening.
Duterte is also scheduled to meet the Filipino community at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex shortly after arriving at Brunei on Sunday.
Duterte will be flying to Brunei on October 16 from Davao City before heading on to China on October 18, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ambassador Charles Jose said.
“Both [state] visits are expected to enhance our friendly relations with both countries and to ensure them that the Philippines continue to be their partners in the region,” Jose said in a Palace briefing.
Brunei has strong defense relations with the Philippines and gives active support to the peace process in Mindanao. Royal Brunei Armed Forces and Royal Brunei Police Force personnel continuously take part in the International Monitoring Team’s peacekeeping mission in Mindanao.
In December last year, Brunei and the Philippines signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of information and communications technology and multimedia.
The MoU aims to promote cooperation in ICT and multimedia initiative and help both countries’ aspiration to achieve economic and social development, connectivity and shared prosperity in the BIMP-EAGA region towards realizing the Asean economic integration.
