Welcome dinner for US Ambassador Sung Kim

New US Ambassador Sung Kim seems to be off to a good start, spending an hour with President Rodrigo Duterte after he presented his credentials early this month. Kim immediately posted on Twitter, thanking the President for the warm welcome.

Ambassador Kim is a seasoned diplomat who has done admirable work as Ambassador to South Korea and as US Special Envoy to the Six-Party talks on the nuclear issue with North Korea in 2008, where he also worked expansively with China. Being of Asian descent (he was born in South Korea and moved to the US when he was 13), his familiarity with Asian culture will certainly serve him in good stead and will help in his interactions with the President.

We hosted a dinner for the new US Ambassador and he was very pleased to meet in one sitting the main members of the Duterte Cabinet that include Executive Secretary Bingbong Medialdea, Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez, Foreign Affairs Secretary Jun Yasay and Defense Secretary Del Lorenzana.

Also present were my business friends Tessie Sy-Coson, Manny Pangilinan, Paul Dominguez and Ricky Razon, who was very voluble and was the life of the dinner conversation. Ricky had an animated discussion with Ambassador Kim, giving the latter an overview on how business is conducted in the Philippines.

We also had Ambassadors Asif Ahmad of the UK, Amanda Gorely of Australia and Kazuhide Ishikawa of Japan, as well as US Deputy Chief of Mission Michael Klecheski.

During his speech, Ambassador Kim said he is happy that he has been able to hit the ground running, expressing confidence that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States will continue to be strong and stable especially with the bond of shared history and values that have kept ties close and deep between Filipinos and Americans.

We capped the dinner by offering Ambassador Kim and our guests a classic French wine -— “Chateau du Tertre.”