Your Excellency, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai; your excellencies; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

In December of last year, Mrs. Ramos and I were the honored guests in Bangkok of their majesties, the King and Queen of Thailand. During that state visit, we had the distinct opportunity to be hosted by his excellency, the Prime Minister. On that occasion, I pointed to the synergies and the paradoxes in the bilateral relations between the Philippines and Thailand.

Here were two nations, scarcely a sea apart, but culturally and racially akin, with a long history of political collaboration but otherwise seemingly, not fully aware of one another. Just like two neighbors secured in the presence of each other, the Philippines and Thailand have tended to look beyond, to cultivate relations with countries of other climes and continents, when many of the things our two countries seek are really just across the fence.

For two countries so closely intertwined as our common membership for the past four decades, in such organizations as SEATO, ASEAN and very recently, the APEC, indicates there is a distance that is not easy to explain.

The figures do not lie. Trade between our two countries pales in comparison to our trade with other countries. The data on investments is virtually negligible. So are the usual other indicators of mutual interaction like tourism and cultural and technical interchanges.

That first visit, however, made to Thailand three months ago broke the ground, leading us to appreciate more deeply the other facets of our relationship although politics has its purposes especially in our region where vestiges of the cold war and other unproductive confrontations continue to linger. Our lifeline is really attached to economics. And so, we have finally realized that as ASEAN’s collective decision to accelerate trade through the ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA so amply illustrates.

Mr. Prime Minister, your visit can only further energize and reinforce our efforts to lay a broader and firmer basis for our bilateral relations. Mrs. Ramos and I are particularly delighted to welcome you so soon after our still very fresh visit to Bangkok. Compared to the wide divide in time and space that usually separates visits between national leaders, I believe that the proximity of our dates from Bangkok in December, to manila in march testifies to our mutual commitment to pursue the promise of closer cooperation and complementation. Surely, we are now looking more towards each other and rediscovering each other’s potentials in a wide range of economic and other activities.

There is both a compelling logic and great urgency in this endeavor. Thailand and the Philippines are both founding members of ASEAN, the crossroads of the Asia-Pacific region, which is considered the fastest growing economic area in the world. The promise of our region could usher in a pacific era, and it is for us to make that happen now.

In this light, we must assume a greater role in the unfolding destinies of each other and our neighbors. The era of the superpowers and their providing political protection and military safety nets, is over. We must act in concert, take primary responsibility for the security and stability of our own neighborhood and ensure that peace and prosperity are shared.

Your excellency, ASEAN as a whole has proven to be both stable and enduring. We have devoted considerable time and energy to its nurture, and may have paid more attention to the association at the expense of the bilateral relations among its six member-nations. I believe it is time to pay full attention to our relations, one on one, and find ways in which we can contribute to the growth and development of each other and everyone.

In salute to the many successes of Thailand, in expectation of enhanced relations between our two countries, in hopes that ASEAN through AFTA will bless the economic life of its members, I ask you ladies and gentlemen, to rise and join me in a toast to the continued good health of His Majesty, the King of Thailand and Her Majesty, the Queen, to the health of His Excellency, the Prime Minister of Thailand, to the continued prosperity of the Thai people, and to the abiding friendship between Thailand and the Philippines.