Omnibus Intervention
delivered by
FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECRETARY TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR.
during the
ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers Meeting
03 August 2021
Excellencies,
This meeting bringing us all together at the end of the day is a fitting conclusion to today’s Olympic marathon of meetings; a reaffirmation of our commitment to multilateralism and to an East Asian community.
We are more than one year into the pandemic, or should I say the pandemic is more than one year into us. Just when we thought the end was in sight, the Delta variant came. But I am not perturbed. We collectively adapted to regional challenges unforeseen before the pandemic, and this assures me that the ASEAN Plus Three will overcome.
But we must be quick and decisive. Digital technology is our tool for recovery and resilience in this the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The new Work Plan must reflect lessons learned from the pandemic, builds on past gains and identifies new areas of cooperation.
The ASEAN Plus Three mechanism has also provided a platform to harness our geographic and maritime endowments to advance regional cooperation and resilience.
As littoral states, our seas are a source of sustenance, vital avenues for communication, transportation, trade and people-to-people linkages. Hence we should use our seas to our advantage and ensure their peaceful use under the rule of law.
To this end we need to stabilize existing supply chains and support new ones, to overcome vulnerabilities the pandemic has exposed about regional trade and people-to-people ties in a calamity. Defining the Blue Economy beckons us further forward.
We also need to improve connectivity, given our common maritime attributes. To do what’s needed to hasten implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and expand synergies with the New Southern Policy Plus, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.
Ensuring safe movement within the region is also a priority. The creation of a mechanism within the APT akin to the ASEAN Travel Corridor Arrangement Framework will undoubtedly facilitate this.
The APT was established not just to deepen political cooperation, but also to strengthen economic ties. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is an opportunity to demonstrate that the road to recovery is one where all are equal partners. We look forward to its entry into force soon.
The micro is equally as important as the macro. The recovery of micro, small, and medium enterprises is integral to the region’s post-pandemic recovery. They need to be equipped with the necessary tools to face disruptive technologies prompted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitalization.
The potential of regional sub-groupings in contributing to economic recovery is immense. The importance given by APT to sub-regional groupings within ASEAN, including BIMP-EAGA, must be sustained to create pockets of growth that will complement ASEAN’s economic development.
Excellencies, we face a future permanently altered by the pandemic. It is in times like this that we all the more realize the value of the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism. If we move forward, we do so together, leaving no one behind, and with ASEAN at the center. Let us make our region the center of the Asian Century.
The pandemic has given us a future that is complex, and unknown. But that is what also makes it exciting. Who wouldn’t want excitement, especially in the geopolitical context? After all, to paraphrase American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, only those who brave the complexities of global governance can comprehend its possibilities. Thank you.