Philippine Omnibus Intervention
delivered by
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr.
during the
11th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
04 August 2021
AGENDA ITEM 1: REVIEW AND FUTURE DIRECTION OF EAS COOPERATION
AGENDA ITEM 2: EXCHANGE OF VIEWS OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Excellencies,
The East Asia Summit is ASEAN’s primary forum for strategic dialogue with its partners on the most pressing security challenges of our region. Today those challenges are centered around COVID, the climate crisis and peace in the South China Sea.
On COVID our priority remains the same: equitable, timely, and affordable access to vaccines; vaccines as a global public good. We stress the importance of singling out Myanmar for special help. It is in a bad way, and we cannot leave our brother Myanmar behind. We ask dialogue partners to continue support for the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund with a view to helping the people of Myanmar in this pandemic.
We also urge emulating of President Biden’s support for WTO’s proposal to waive intellectual property protections on vaccines. This is a lifeline for all that enables and speeds up vaccine production worldwide.
In COVID, as in climate change, we all pitch in or share the same fate. COP26 in Glasgow is a decisive crossroads for our common goal of zero net emissions, and the survival of our planet.
Integral to climate action is biodiversity conservation and environmental protection. We call for the support of Dialogue Partners to the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, as it works to conserve, protect, and advocate sustainable use of biodiversity.
The dynamics and wide geographic reach of the Indo-Pacific require multilateral groupings that are flexible and adaptable, in membership and strategic aims. The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific advances ASEAN-led mechanisms. It is also open to developing cooperation with other mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, as needed.
We will continue to emphasize inclusiveness, openness, cooperation and consensus-building, and respect for international law in our approach to regional cooperation and external relations through the ASEAN Outlook. ASEAN is acutely aware of great power dynamics and will only engage in practical and mutually beneficial cooperation aligned with the priority areas of the Outlook.
The Philippines aspires for the South China Sea to remain a sea of peace, security, stability, and prosperity.But it will never pay for that with its national honor or a square inch of territory or a drop of water that is its own. As outgoing Country Coordinator for negotiations on the Code of Conduct, the Philippines achieved such progress on the COC as it could in the pandemic.
It bears emphasizing that all the littoral states exercise self-restraint and refrain from destabilizing activities. They impede full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration of Conduct among all of us in Southeast Asia, China preeminently; and discourage the environment conducive to the prompt conclusion of an effective, substantive and internationally respected COC.
The Philippines reaffirms that the 1982 UNCLOS sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. We welcome support for the 2016 Arbitral Award.
On Myanmar, we remain firm on the need to swiftly implement the Five-Point Consensus. The Chair’s Special Envoy must his begin his work at once, so unhindered humanitarian assistance be provided immediately. For dialogue amongst involved parties to be effective, we call for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, other political detainees and her foreign economic adviser, Sean Turnell. Constructive dialogue is what the Five-Point Consensus calls for; it can only happen when everyone concerned is at the table. We await the full restoration of the democratic status quo ante as the precondition for normal relations with Myanmar.
Thank you.