Russia Ready to Step Up Military Cooperation with Philippines

"I remember you being forced to cut short your visit to Russia due to terrorist attacks in your country, and I remember you telling me that you have to establish order, to attack those terrorists," Putin said,TASS news agency reported.

"I would like to congratulate you on having done this," he added.

According to Putin, tackling terrorism is one of the main challenges for both countries.

"In this respect, as has been agreed, (we plan) to step up cooperation, particularly in the military area, military-technical field, and of course we should put more focus on economic ties," he said, adding that though the economic relations between the two countries are rather weak, an upward trend has emerged recently.