Secretary Locsin, Australian Foreign Minister Hold Talks Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

PASAY CITY 30 April 2020 – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. took the call of Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne today. She expressed Australia’s deep appreciation for the tremendous help given by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) in facilitating the gathering and repatriation of some 1,600 Australians from all over the Philippines.

Secretary Locsin said there were hitches; the national government gave broad directives to make the repatriation as fast and smooth as possible. This met resistance from local government units (LGUs) apprehensive about the entry of outsiders in their communities; but through the cooperation between DFA, DOT, LGUs and the Foreign Embassies, difficulties were smoothed out and are proceeding with increasing facility. He said the embassies of France, Germany, Canada, the Scandinavian countries and others worked well together, in many cases sharing flights out. He said that Australian Ambassador Steven J. Robinson’s work was outstanding.

They discussed several diplomatic initiatives regarding the COVID crisis, such as getting to the bottom of it, finding a cure, and adopting protocols to address its certain recurrence in a timely and therefore immediately effective fashion. Secretary Locsin further said that the Philippines was watching countries like Australia for models of response. He asked her to take care of Filipinos with temporary visas in Australia at this time of lockdown in both countries. END