President Lee Jae-myung on the 3rd (local time) will visit the Philippines as a state guest and hold a summit with President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. According to the presidential office, after concluding a two-night, three-day schedule in Singapore, Lee arrived at Villamor Air Base in Manila in the afternoon and moved to the summit venue.
Lee is expected to use this state visit to discuss strengthening cooperation with the Philippines in fields such as the defense industry and shipbuilding. To that end, the two leaders and their working-level teams will hold talks and proceed with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing, a joint press announcement, and a state dinner.
The first item on the schedule is a wreath-laying at Rizal Park, established to honor independence activist José Rizal, who is revered as the father of the nation. This is a veterans-affairs event in consideration of the Philippines' participation in the Korean War, the largest in Asia at the time. This will be followed by a summit with the Philippine president and a state dinner at Malacañang Palace. It will be about four months since the two leaders last met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju in Oct. last year.
Marking the 77th anniversary of Korea-Philippines diplomatic relations on this day, the two countries are expected to discuss ways to expand and deepen economic cooperation with a future-oriented approach. The presidential office also expects to broaden the foundation for cooperation beyond existing areas such as the defense industry, infrastructure, and trade to include nuclear power, shipbuilding, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence (AI), and to produce concrete results.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is currently supplying warships on an ongoing basis after winning orders from the Philippine Navy. Recently, it made an early delivery of the first offshore patrol vessel (OPV). This is the first of six OPVs ordered, and it was delivered five months ahead of schedule, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries said. It is equipped with an anti-submarine acoustic detector and is designed to be operated for maritime surveillance, maritime security missions, and military operations.
Because of this, in the industry there is talk that additional submarine orders worth trillions of won could be finalized on the occasion of this summit. In particular, a large number of businesspeople from both countries are scheduled to attend the "Korea-Philippines Business Forum." At this event, expansion of cooperation in the defense industry, nuclear power, and critical minerals is expected to be the main focus. Lee will then wrap up his state visit to the Philippines after meeting with compatriots for a luncheon roundtable.