Opening Statement
delivered by
FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECRETARY TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR.
during the
ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Session With China
03 August 2021
Excellencies,
It is my honor to welcome and co-chair my last Post-Ministerial Conference with His Excellency Wang Yi, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. I extend my appreciation to Brunei Darussalam for its excellent hosting of this meeting.
Nearly two months have passed since we gathered in Chongqing to commemorate the 30th anniversary of our dialogue relations. Today, we meet to further discuss our cooperation and exchange views on issues of shared concern.
Excellencies, the three decades of ASEAN-China partnership have generated significant benefits to both sides through expanding cooperation in many areas. It is to all our credit that we have not allowed the pandemic to affect our partnership. On the contrary, it’s made us all stronger; not by making some of us weak to make others strong; not by encouraging dependency to make any of us pliable and other stronger; but by forcing each one to stand up alone and turn to the others only in the most urgent matters. Convenience is not a good basis for friendship; nor weakness a quality you can depend on when the going gets rough. The most enduring friendships are between the strong. And if this pandemic does not finish each of us off; it can make each of us stronger and together unbeatable.
Thus, despite COVID-19, total trade between ASEAN and China reached 516.9 billion USD in 2020, an increase of 1.8% from 2019.
We battled the virus together with special thanks to China’s continued support and generous donations to our respective vaccination efforts. As we enter a new phase of this battle with the emergence and dominance of the Delta variant, China is sharing its difficult experiences even as we have held back nothing of our own experiences — the better to work together in the common plight.
Interconnectivity has been key. We must continue to enhance implementation of our Joint Statement on Synergizing the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 with the Belt and Road Initiative.
So is Digital Economy Cooperation, which allowed us to harness ICT-enabled solutions to quickly respond to the pandemic. We should turn it now to hasten recovery and increase resilience.
In moving forward, sustainable development is all the more imperative. We have each taken a different hit in this pandemic — in timing, in severity, in the effectiveness and exhaustion of varied strategies.
We must learn from each other so we don’t repeat mistakes; and thereby be more resilient, each on our own account; because we must stay in the game so that ASEAN survive this crisis still if not more committed to its aims. Public health cooperation; poverty eradication in circumstances where poverty can only increase; biodiversity conservation, and above all the climate crisis that’s added storms and flooding of unnatural scale and ferocity to the pandemic. All require collective and wider endeavors.
Excellencies, our survival and recovery depend on individual preparation and collective and complementary responses. Today’s meeting is an opportunity to continue laying a strong foundation for regional stability, resilience, and progress. Thank you.