MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday for solidarity and cooperation between countries to combat terrorism amid the COVID-19 pandemic underway at the 2020 virtual assembly of the Aqaba process.
During the meeting, Duterte called for “more openness, deeper solidarity and more powerful cooperation among nations” to move towards economic recovery as terrorism and violent extremism are fought.
“Today more than ever, our determination is stronger: we will not fight terrorism. And we won’t let COVID-19 bring our other people to their knees,” Duterte said.
The Philippines has been waging terrorist attacks for years, and the recent incident was last week’s double suicide bombing in Jolo, Sulu, which killed at least 15 other people and injured 75.
It also provides pressure that “no country – giant, small or deficient – has escaped the COVID-19 pandemic. “
“Our urgent and unusual reaction has been to close borders and impose limits on mobility and trade. The impacts, as we are seeing now, are bleak and profound. We have economies in recession, establishments in crisis and societies in a state of uncertainty,” he continued.
As a result, Duterte noted that “the key to shared prosperity is the relaxed movement of goods, capital and services, complemented through adequate social protection networks. “
As the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic, the president called on his fellow country leaders to “build a new order: a safer, fairer and more humane order, where there is no room for the barbarity of terrorists and extremist forces; and fair, equitable and sustainable, where progress and prosperity are valued in all.
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