MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. welcomed Her Excellency Annalena Baerbock, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, during her courtesy visit to the Malacañan Palace on Thursday.

“I am very happy that you were able to come and you have found a time. I’m sure you had a long way to visit the Philippines,” President Marcos told Baerbock, the first German Foreign Minister to visit the Philippines after more than a decade.

Baerbock is in the Philippines as part of her visit to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The chief executive also told Baerbock that he is hoping to develop more cooperation with the government of Germany as he looks forward to visiting the country in March this year.

President Marcos invited Baerbock to visit some places in the Philippines.

“There have been many items that seeing as that – there has been a distinct term by the European countries, the EU in general, and European countries in terms of interest to this part of the world,” President Marcos said.

“What we used to define as the Southeast Asia has now expanded to Indo-Pacific area. And on this, I’m not talking simply about geo-political concerns, especially also trade,” the chief executive added.

Philippine-Germany diplomatic relations span 69 years since its establishment on October 8, 1954. It is set to celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations this year.

Total trade with Germany reached US$3.91 billion with exports valued at US$2.28 billion and imports at US$1.63 billion. In 2022, Germany ranked as the Philippines 12th trading partner, 10th market export and 15th import supplier.

Approved investments from Germany are manufacturing, administrative and support service activities, transportation and storage, arts, entertainment and recreation, including whole sale and retail trade, repair of vehicles and motorcycles, among others.

Germany is home to 36, 135 Filipinos as of December 2022. (PND)