Manila, Philippines – President Benigno S. Aquino III will once again meet United States President Barack Obama. They will meet for the second time at the 19th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings in Indonesia on November 18.
The two leaders first met after the 2nd ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in New York City last September 2010. According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, the meeting will happen upon the request of Obama and that it will come on the heels of the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton to mark the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and the United States.
“These high level engagements between the two countries underscore their strong alliance and strategic partnership,” Del Rosario said in a statement yesterday. (Roy C. Mabasa)