MANILA: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to make an official visit to the Philippines on November 9.
Based on initial information gathered, President Aquino is preparing for the visit and for his three remaining foreign trips for the year.
Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported on October 24 that the Philippines looked poised to play a greater role in Canadian foreign policy.
It said that in June, the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Manila for the establishment of a joint commission for bilateral cooperation.
It reported that Harper was expected to visit the Philippines in mid-November after a week-long trip to India.
The trip is “mainly to talk about (how to) expand our economic cooperation,” the Globe and Mail quoted Philippine Ambassador Leslie Gatan as saying. Gatan also talked about Manila’s eagerness to work with Canada on defence and agriculture, among other areas of interest. Aquino arrived Friday night from state visits to New Zealand and Australia.
Aquino told reporters in Sydney of his forthcoming trip to Laos on November 5 to 6 for the Asia-Europe Meeting, and to Cambodia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit on November 18-20.
He said his last trip for the year – December 20-21 – would be to New Delhi for the Asean-India Commemorative summit.
Currently, Canada only had a small population of Filipinos until the late 20th century. To date, there are currently around 400,000 Filipino Canadians in Canada, most of them living in urbanized areas.
This number is growing yearly due to Canada’s more liberal immigration laws to compensate for their low population growth. Filipino-Canadians are the third-largest Asian Canadian group in the nation after the Indian and Chinese communities.
They are also the largest Southeast Asian group in the country.
The Philippine star
