DFA: NEW POWER BALANCE IN MIDDLE EAST WON'T CHANGE PHL OFWs POLICY
[PHOTO-Iran is building a reactor at Arak, where it already has a heavy-water production plant]
MANILA, JANUARY 16, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) BY BERNICE CAMILLE V. BAUZON REPOrTER - The rise of Persian power and influence in the Middle East—where about 2 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now earn a living—will not affect Philippine foreign policies in the region, a senior official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) told The Manila Times on Friday. Officials from the Foreign Affairs department routinely remind the public that the Philippines enjoy "good relations" with Middle East countries such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, United Arab of Emirates, among others.
The alleged increase in influence of Iranian power in the region—especially as American troops are slated to be pulled out from Iraq within the year and the return of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr to the country from Iran—"would have no impact" on the ties between Manila and the Middle East countries.
And as the United States of America slowly loses its hold on the region, the Philippines is seemingly forced to choose between America and the rising superpower in the Middle East.
But the Foreign Affairs official, who requested anonymity, said that there would be no deep impact to the Philippines if Iran widens its hold on the Middle East.
"Our foreign policies are not tied with that of America . . . Iran will not be a threat," the official said.
However, this is not to say that Manila does not enjoy a good diplomatic relationship with Tehran. In fact, the Filipino-Iranian Chamber of Commerce (FICC) has been seeking new ways to increase the Philippine's economic activity with Iran.
"Many exploratory moves from within the private sector" are being made to hopefully improve trade relations with that non-Arab Islamic country, Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya earlier told The Times.
The FICC has been the prime catalyst and promoter of business ventures, trade, commerce and industry relations and partnerships between Philippines- and Iran-based investors. The chamber hopes to extend these ventures to Asian and Middle East markets.
In 2009, Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Mirkalaie, an Iranian trade official, said that despite the western influence in most countries of the Southeast Asia region, the commercial ties between Iran and the Philippines "have been expanding for the last decade."
"Currently, the Philippines is one of Iran's main trade partners," he had said.
From the period of March 2008 up to early 2009, Iran's non-oil exports to the Philippines stood at $83 million while Iran imported $84-million worth of various products from the Philippines.
Also, according to a November 2009 statement from Iranian Ambassador to Manila Ali Mojtaba Rousbahani, bilateral trade between the two countries for the year totaled to about $370 million with potential growth on both sides. He also called for the expansion of trade cooperation between Tehran and Manila especially in the fields of energy, technology, science and culture.
But as with the increasing strain in relationship between China and the United States because of Beijing's economic growth in the past decade, the Philippines is yet again put to a test in choosing between two great powers in regions where OFW interests are at stake.
"We have good security relations with the United States, but that does not mean that we will follow the US in all the aspects of regional affairs," the official said.
Earlier, when Manila was also indirectly forced to choose between Beijing and Washington, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo averred that the country's foreign policy will always be "friend to all and enemies to no one."
He had said that maintaining strong ties with countries in the Western and Middle East region is proving to be beneficial for the Philippines in all aspects of the country's economic and social growth.
And as for the relationship between Iran and the Philippines, Romulo also told The Times that Manila is enjoying "quite good relations" with Tehran.
Relations between Tehran and Manila gained momentum in 1995 during the state visits of then President Fidel Ramos to Iran in March 1995 and of then Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in October 1995.
(RELATED NEWS REPORT IN PHNO Business & Economy (BE) SECTION) Manila Times newsreport: WILL A NEW POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST AFFECT OFW MIGRATION?
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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