OREANDA-NEWS. Russia and the Philippines will conclude several bilateral agreements during the visit of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Russia, which will take place in early October. This was stated by the representative of the Foreign Ministry of the Philippines Amelita Aquino.

"President Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be present at the signing of a number of bilateral agreements that will affect cooperation between the two countries in the fields of culture, healthcare and science", the Philippine newspaper quoted her on Friday. Aquino admitted that Manila and Moscow could reach other agreements, however, the representative didn't comment on their contents, because "the discussion of these agreements is still ongoing".

Aquino also announced that during a trip abroad, Duterte will meet with members of the Philippine community in the Russian Federation. “Almost 7 thousand Filipinos live in Russia, this is a very large country. We want the president to have as much time as possible to meet with them in Moscow”, she stressed.

Duterte visited Russia in May 2017, but due to the aggravation of the situation in his country, he was then forced to interrupt his visit and urgently return home. The reason for this was the situation on the island of Mindanao in the south of the Philippines, where martial law was imposed in connection with armed clashes between the military and militants associated with the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in the Russian Federation).

Earlier, a spokesman for the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Duterte on October 3, together with Putin and the leaders of Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan and Jordan will attend a meeting of the Valdai Club in Sochi. According to a Kremlin spokesman, the Russian president also plans to hold bilateral meetings with his foreign colleagues, including Duterte.