Philippines: As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded his first visit to the key Southeast Asian country on Tuesday, the two democracies reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the development aspirations and shared priorities of the two democracies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Jaishankar's three-day visit to the Philippines comes less than two weeks after the Philippines and India agreed to buy three BrahMos cruise missile batteries for USD 375 million.

During his visit, the minister met with his counterpart, Teodoro L Locsin Jr, and the two ministers discussed advances in bilateral ties since the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation meeting in November 2020, which they co-chaired in a virtual format.

In a press release, the External Affairs Ministry said, "Both ministers agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the two democracies' developmental aspirations and shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific region."

They talked about the future of the two countries' broad engagement and also an in-depth exchange of ideas on regional and international topics of mutual importance.

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