Melbourne: The Philippines hopes to launch formal free trade agreement negotiations with the European Union "very soon," Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told Agence France-Presse in an interview Monday.The Southeast Asian nation, which depends heavily on trade with China, wants to expand its economic relations with other countries to achieve greater "resiliency," Manalo said."We're hoping... to very soon begin free trade negotiations with the EU," he said.The Philippines has been in preliminary talks about a free trade deal with the 27-nation bloc for months.A previous effort almost a decade ago stalled amid EU concerns about then president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war."What we're really aiming for is the notion of greater economic resilience," Manalo said, underscoring the importance of being able to adapt to "sudden changes", whether man-made or natural.The Philippines is focused on creating "greater economic security and economic resiliency, which in turn contributes to your own national security," Manalo said.The EU and the Philippines would seek to establish greater cooperation in the area of critical minerals, the official said, using existing supply chains but with more processing activity in the Philippines.

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