Marcos seeks more engagements with Czech on cybersecurity

PRAGUE – President Ferdinand ”Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is seeking more engagements with the Czech government when it comes to cybersecurity and defense-industrial sector. 

Marcos conveyed the message as he met with Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Thursday night (Philippine time).

“We continue to pursue and explore the areas that we spoke about before. We, of course, talked about the defense and security and in that vein, we have just, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as you know, is in the process of modernization of our capabilities and capacities,” Marcos said.

“We continue to explore also in terms of agriculture, cybersecurity, which is something that we spoke about very briefly, but now we put a little bit more, put a bit more meat on the bones of that initial discussion that we have had.”

During their meeting, Marcos expressed the Philippines’ commitment to work with like-minded countries in Europe in upholding a rules-based international order. He also sought more engagements with Czech defense establishments to enhance cooperation on security, defense-industrial and cyber security.

Marcos and Fiala also tackled increasing cooperation on trade and investment, agriculture, labor and climate change, as well as strengthening people-to-people ties through tourism and university-to-university linkages.  

Similar to his discussion with President Petr Pavel, Marcos vowed that the Philippines is ready to cooperate with the Czech government in ensuring the orderly deployment of Filipino workers, which includes their smooth integration in their work sites and communities.

Meanwhile, Marcos also attended a working lunch hosted by Senate President Milos Vystrcil at the Senate of the Parliament wherein he acknowledged the recent positive exchanges between the Philippines and Czech Republic parliaments.

Philippine Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri was part of the working lunch with Vystrcil. —KBK, GMA Integrated News