India and the Philippines on 13 November 2017 signed four agreements to enhance cooperation in various fields including defence and foreign services. The agreements were signed following the PM Narendra Modi bilateral meeting with the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
These four agreements cover areas of defence, agriculture, small and medium enterprises and tie-up between think-tanks of both the countries.
The agreements were signed during PM Modi three-day visit to Manila, the Philippines to attend the 15th India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the 12th East Asia Summit.
This is the second visit by Indian PM to the Philippines in 36 years after the visit of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1981. Earlier in 2007, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Philippines for the ASEAN summit.
PM Modi visit to International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Philippines
During his visit to the Philippines, PM Modi visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos and interacted with several Indian scientists working there.
The scientists at IRRI briefed the PM on flood-tolerant rice varieties which can withstand 14-18 days of submergence and provide 1-3 tonnes more yield per hectare in flood-affected areas.
Following this meeting with the scientists, a ‘Rice Field Laboratory’ named after PM Modi was also inaugurated by him at the institute. The laboratory is named as 'Narendra Modi Resilient Rice Field Laboratory'.
PM Modi also contributed two Indian rice seed varieties to the gene bank of the international rice research centre in the Philippines with an aim to mitigate global poverty and hunger by improving the cultivation of the key grain.
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