The Philippines has requested a bilateral meeting between President Marcos Jr. and Putin

The Republic of the Philippines has officially appealed to the Russian side with a request to organize a bilateral meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Russian Leader Vladimir Putin.

This was told to Izvestia by the Philippine ambassador to Moscow, Igor Bailen. He clarified that we are talking about a possible personal meeting between the two presidents at the Russia—ASEAN summit in Kazan.

At the same time, the parties have an understanding in advance that this meeting will not be able to last, since they have Putin has already scheduled bilateral meetings with almost all 11 representatives of the association countries.

"We have requested from the Russian side a meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and President Vladimir Putin. So, I think this will be their first meeting. In addition to the ASEAN—Russia summit, they will, of course, be able to discuss some progress in the bilateral dialogue between Manila and Moscow," the ambassador said.

At the same time, Bailen noted that during the summit his country has no plans to sign any new agreements with Russia.

The participation of the Philippine side in the summit has already been confirmed. The event will be held in Kazan from June 17 to 19. This year also marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of relations between Russia and ASEAN.

Earlier, EADaily reported that a strong earthquake occurred off the southern coast of the Philippine island of Mindanao. As a result, at least 45 people were killed, 17 were missing and 487 were injured.