Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday lauded the Philippines and Australia's good economic and people-to-people relations in his historic meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Bangkok.

"Australia and the Philippines have such good relations. We have good economic ties. We have good people-to-people relations," the Australian leader told Marcos.

Albanese and Marcos also agreed about the positive developments and agreements from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Thailand.

"I certainly agree with you, Mr. President, that this has been an extremely successful conference. We just adopted the Leaders' Statement but also more importantly, we adopted the economy that… in your closing comments in the Plenary Session that there was a common thing that you and I have to take action on climate change and we may deal with that," Albanese told Marcos.

The Australian leader was referring to Marcos' push for APEC leaders to tackle climate change if it wants to build the economic future that it wants.

The Philippine leader, meanwhile, underscored the "long-standing" and "stronger" connections between Australia and the Philippines.

"As you say, the connections between Australia and the Philippines have been long-standing and have become stronger and stronger. We have a sizeable population in Australia of Filipino nationals. And many of them have already taken Australian citizenship and dual citizenship," said Marcos.

Marcos and Albanese are in Bangkok for the 29th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM), which is hosted by Thailand.

Among those present during the bilateral meeting between President Marcos and the Australian PM were House Speaker Martin Romualdez and former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In his attendance at the APEC, the Philippine leader addressed economic leaders about the need to improve climate change adaptation efforts and ensure food and energy security in the region. Presidential News Desk