President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will fly to Japan on Friday for the 50th anniversary of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo over the weekend.

In a press briefing in the Palace, Foreign Affairs Office of ASEAN Affairs Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu said Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida could have a bilateral meeting.

" His first official engagement may be a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. But since the details of this are still being firmed up, I will not divulge yet the details," he said.

Espiritu added that since the reciprocal access agreement (RAA) is a bilateral issue, it "could be a matter of bilateral discussions between the Philippines and Japan."

However, Espiritu said there is no chance that the RAA between Philippines and Japan will be signed on the sidelines of the summit.

"It is not part of the agenda. And as for the bilateral meeting, it might be but I cannot confirm whether that will be a part of the agenda. An RAA will require a long time to make, so I don’t think it could be done in just one sitting," he said.

Espiritu disclosed a Joint Vision Statement of ASEAN and Japan and the plan for its implementation will be issued during the summit.

"The joint statement covers, of course, as I said a moment ago the inter-gamut of relations between ASEAN and Japan. What we call the three pillars of ASEAN, are political-security matters, which include defense issues, transnational crime and etcetera., but also economic issues, trade and investment, socio-cultural issues, people-to-people exchange issues, climate change, and again, etcetera," Espiritu said.

Espiritu said aside from the main day of the summit on Sunday, Marcos will also participate in another event of Asia Zero Emission Community, which is "dedicated to lowering the emission of carbon gasses into the atmosphere towards supposedly zero net effect at the end."

On Dec. 18 (Monday), "there will also be bilateral business meetings headed by the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) while there would also be a roundtable meeting for a status report on the pledges and agreement signed during the February 2023 visit on the President and also the signing of the new business agreements" on the same day, Espiritu said.

"This is important, because I remember during our last briefing, one of the questions posted here was what happened to the pledges before. So, this will be an opportunity for us to see what the progress is," he said.

Espiritu said an event at the Imperial Palace, which is an audience with the Emperor and the Empress is also being scheduled before Marcos will leave for the Philippines around 6:45 pm of the same day. Robina Asido/DMS