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The United Kingdom’s Permanent Under-Secretary of State Simon Fraser on Wednesday said in Manila that his government is supportive of the affirmative action on investment taken by President Benigno C. Aquino III, amid a revived campaign for charter change or “cha-cha.”

Manila was the second leg of Fraser’s three-country Asian swing. He earlier visited the southern Chinese port city of Guangzhou and is now in Tokyo, which he said indicates London’s “priorities in foreign policy, with countries that are important to us in the future.”

In Manila, in particular, the British Foreign Office is looking at a more strengthened relationship, specifically in trade and investments, and taking into consideration the Philippines’ role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Fraser told a press briefing.

Accompanied by ambassador to Manila, Stephen Lillie, Fraser met with Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Antonio Rodriguez, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Peace Adviser Teresita Deles. He arrived in Manila on Tuesday and left on Thursday.

He explained that amid a profoundly changing world, the UK has “to expand and strengthen (its) relationships beyond (our) traditional partners.”

”As an important emerging market in what is probably the most important region of the future, the Philippines will definitely be a major part of that change. We look forward to establishing ever closer ties between our two countries,” Fraser told the press at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

His meetings included exchanges not only on the Mindanao peace process, commercial trade and investments and a possible exchange around effort towards the Aquino government’s flagship public-private partnerships (PPP), according to the British embassy in Manila.

He added that given the number of countries of the European Union (EU) it is negotiating with, it is in the interest of the Philippines to engage rapidly in a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU. The U.K. is an E.U. member.

On the other hand, he noted, that trade issues such as the PPP are negotiated through the EU and the FTA with the ASEAN and because “we’d like to move as rapidly as possible, we (U.K.) prefer bilateral discussions.”

“We have many common values, and the UK is ready to help the Philippines achieve its development objectives,” Fraser said.

According to Fraser, who heads the British diplomatic service and is the highest ranking official in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the U.K. is happy with its current relationship with the Philippines, even as Ambassador Lillie noted that more could be achieved if the business environment here has more predictability and stability. - PNA

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