Manalo to co-chair JCBC in India
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo is set to visit New Delhi, India, to co-chair the 5th meeting of the Philippines-India Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) on June 29, 2023.
The visit will be made upon the invitation of the Minister of External Affairs, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The Philippines-India JCBC is a ministerial-level platform usually held every two years to review bilateral relations and chart “areas of cooperation” for the succeeding years.
Due to the pandemic, the Philippines hosted the fourth meeting of the Philippines-India JCBC virtually on November 6, 2020.
For the fifth meeting, Manalo will lead a delegation composed of officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Finance (DOF), Philippine Space Agency (PSA), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), and the Philippine Overseas Construction Board of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The inter-agency delegation reflects the deepening cooperation between the Philippines and India across various sectors.
On June 28, 2023, the DFA secretary will headline the 42nd Sapru Lecture organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and the Philippine Foreign Service Institute.
He will also engage with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), as well as the Philippines’ Honorary Consular Officials in India and Nepal and Filipino community leaders during his visit.
Manalo’s visit to New Delhi builds on the “positive” trajectory of high-level interactions between the two countries in the past six years.
The Philippines and India are set to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2024.
