The Philippines is looking at June 2023 as one of the possible dates for the first state visit to the United States of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
Romualdez said the embassy will try to time the visit during the Summit for Democracy that will be held in the US capital Washington DC, which Mr. Marcos is expected to attend.
“We are going to start working on that one as a possibility,” Romualdez said in a briefing with visiting Filipino journalists.
The state visit would highlight the Marcos administration’s efforts to reaffirm ties with the US in a turnaround from the often-frosty relations with the previous government.
“It is not a goal. It is our view that it is time for a Philippine President to come to Washington DC and of course, the White House is also looking at it as such. The summit for democracy may be an opportunity for us to schedule it, but it is still up in the air of course,” Romualdez said.
If the US state visit pushes through, it will be the first for a Philippine leader in 19 years. Then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did so in 2003, while then-President Benigno Aquino III was there for an official visit in 2012.
“It will be good for our continuing relationship with the United States,” Romualdez said, adding that bolstering American investments in the country will be the President’s key priority.
Mr. Marcos and US President Joe Biden first met in an informal meeting at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
According to Romualdez, the two leaders “had a very good meeting and hit it off very well.”
“We’re in for a very good working relationship, a renewed relationship at a different level now. It will be more on what we both need, things that this country needs from us and what we need from the United States,” he said.