National Security Council Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is eyeing to further improve the security cooperation between the Philippines and the Russian Federation during his bilateral meeting with his Russian counterparts.

Esperon will be in Moscow on May 18-19. His meeting with Russian officials will take place following the trip of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano in Moscow where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on May 15.

Esperon said he will meet with Secretary Nikolay P. Patruchev of the Security Council of the Russian Federation to follow through on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on security cooperation that the two countries signed in May 2017.

Senior officials from Departments of National Defense, Interior and Local Government, and Justice, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Philippine National Police will also meet with their counterparts.

They are expected to explore cooperation mechanisms on information exchange, capacity-building, training, and other matters that are mutually-beneficial to both nations. Ella Dionisio/DMS