MANILA — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed on Thursday the renewed partnership with the Philippines, underscoring the significant strategic relationship between the two countries during their bilateral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Canberra.

In his speech during the joint press conference with President Marcos, Albanese said he had productive discussions with the President, particularly on driving forward the close collaboration between the Philippines and Australia as strategic partners.

“We’re ambitious for what we can achieve together and on place that way our working actively to build a peaceful region where international law is respected and waterways are open for trade,” Prime Minister Albanese said.

“I’m pleased that with our new MOU [memorandum of understanding] on enhanced maritime cooperation, which we have signed today, will collaborate over more closely to promote our shared vision for the region,” he added.

Albanese said the shared vision with the Philippines include the civil maritime security, marine environment protection, maritime demand awareness and promoting respect for international law as he emphasized that they continue the maritime cooperative activities as regional partners.

He added the Philippines and Australia are committed to doing their parts to sustaining peace and stability in our region.

“We also discussed strengthening cooperation on cyber and critical technology and we’ll work together to promote the open and secure use of cyberspace through our new MOU, of which we have signed today,” Albanese said.

“We’ve also signed a new MOU between our competition commissions to enhance cooperation on competition law and policy, highly relevant issues in both of our countries given the cost of living precious that our people are facing,” he added.

Albanese said Australia remains committed and determined to drive growth in trade and investments in line with Southeast Asia economic strategy to 2040, launched during last year’s ASEAN Summit, and will be the focus in next week’s special summit.

Albanese noted the Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Australia and the Philippines share a vision for an open, stable, and prosperous region where disputes are settled through agreed rules, norms and institutions. ASEAN centrality is critical to this and it will be a great honor to host all the leaders of Southeast Asia in Melbourne next week, for the ASEAN-Australia special summit” he said.

President Marcos is also set to attend the ASEAN-Australia Summit next week. (PND)