06 December 2016 — Secretary of Foreign Affairs Perfecto R. Yasay, Jr. met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on December 05. 

The bilateral meeting came at the heels of the meeting between President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru. The two foreign ministers discussed the current state of bilateral relations and the prospects to enhance cooperation on a broad ranges of areas, spanning the political, security, economic, cultural and people-to-people spheres.

Secretary Yasay and Foreign Minister Lavrov agreed to redouble efforts to conclude a number of agreements that would form part of the legal framework on which to build relations.  They also agreed that their respective ministries would undertake the preparations for the proposed visit to Russia of President Duterte next year. 

During the official lunch tendered by the Russian Foreign Minister, there were discussions on regional and global issues including the priorities of the Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017, regional security architecture and UN issues.

This is the first visit to Russia of Secretary Yasay.  In the joint press conference held after the bilateral meeting, Secretary Yasay emphasized that this engagement is part of the continuing effort which build on the previous visits to Russia of Philippine foreign secretaries to strengthen Philippine-Russia bilateral partnership”.  In closing his press statement, he said “I would like to end by saying how pleased and honored I am to be in Moscow and to be part of this new stage in our relations.”  END