Marcos Jr. meets Qatar Emir; 9 cooperation deals inked

MANILA, Philippines —  The Philippines and Qatar have signed nine cooperation agreements in areas that include climate change mitigation, anti-human trafficking, seafarers’ welfare and trade – a development seen to further enhance ties between the two countries.

The agreements were presented after a bilateral meeting between President Marcos and visiting Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday at Malacañang.

One of the agreements was a memorandum of understanding on technical cooperation on capacity building on climate change.

Signed by the Philippines’ Climate Change Commission and Qatar’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the MOU seeks to strengthen bilateral collaboration in pursuing technical cooperation and capacity building, enhance knowledge sharing, and promote transformative climate action in line with the action goals under the 2016 Paris Agreement.

Also signed was an MOU to strengthen ties and enhance bilateral cooperation in combating human trafficking, which allows both countries to work together to fight human trafficking and advance labor protection in both countries through the exchange of expertise in the field of legislation and exchange of studies and research.

Manila and Doha also inked an MOU on the mutual recognition of seafarers’ certificates to implement the provisions stipulated in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention) of 1978 and its amendments. The MOU refers to Circular No. 1450 issued by the Maritime Safety Committee on Jan. 24, 2013 on the mutual recognition of certificates according to regulation I/10 of the STCW Convention.

The agreement, signed by the Philippines’ Maritime Industry Authority and Qatar’s Ministry of Transport, shall apply to the certificates of seafarers who serve on registered merchant ships of any of the participants and sail under its flag, except for those who serve on the ships mentioned in Article 3 of the STCW Convention.

The two countries also signed an agreement in the field of tourism and business events, which allows Manila and Doha to develop and strengthen their cooperation on tourism and business events