Remarks by Hon. Enrique A. Manalo

Secretary for Foreign Affairs

FOCAP Media Forum

15 February 2024, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Manila Diamond Hotel

15 February 2024, Thursday

Manila Diamond Hotel

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

I wish to thank you, the officers and members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), for inviting me this afternoon to be with you. I know we met about five years ago, but more recently, last August and we had a good exchange.

The year 2023 was a meaningful and productive year for the men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Our approach to foreign policy has been driven by President Ferdinand R. Marcos’ foreign policy purpose and vision.

Basically a friend to all and enemy to none, our diplomacy is working for outcomes benefiting the average Filipino, as it sustains a high level of commitment to contribute to global peace, stability and progress through multilateralism, and advancing shared aspirations of the community of nations.

We witnessed new pages of Philippine bilateral ties, for example with China, Japan, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, United States, and Timor-Leste unfold last year, with 8 incoming and outgoing Presidential-level visits. The President’s trips visit to Davos, Riyadh, and Tokyo amplified the voice of the Philippines in important global meetings, not to mention the President’s participation the previous year (2022) in the UN General Assembly. Each visit and meeting declared the Philippine intention without ambiguity:

to strengthen these partnerships, and through them, the contours of global order that need tending amidst uncertainty and risk.

Most recently, President Joko Widodo’s visit to Manila and President Marcos’ visit to Hanoi united the Philippines and our neighbors Indonesia and Viet Nam in a new level of understanding on our shared role as active stewards of peace and prosperity in our region. This month and in March, the President will visit Australia, Germany, and the Czech Republic. This will highlight the growing scope of our relations with these countries, as we see a broader convergence of interest in cooperating in the areas of energy transition, climate finance, trade, security, and rule of law in the regional and global order.

As Secretary of Foreign Affairs, I, myself, had over 65 meetings with Ministers and other high-ranking officials in 2023, with about 17 of them taking place in the context of focused bilateral visits.

I visited Kampala, Uganda last January to join Leaders and other Ministers of the Non- Aligned Movement in solidarity with NAM’s long-standing pursuit of a more equitable and just global order. There, I had fruitful discussions in 20 bilateral meetings mostly with Foreign Ministers from Africa. I then traveled to Brussels last February to co-chair 24th EU-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting with EU High Representative Joseph Borrell. I also attended to speak at the 3rd Indo Pacific Ministerial Forum. I also met 11 Foreign Ministers from Europe earlier this month.

This year, so far, I was honored to meet and welcome my counterparts to the Philippines, namely, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi of Indonesia last January, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of Germany last month, and Foreign Minister Ignacio Cassis of Switzerland this month. In the coming weeks and months, I look ahead to welcoming the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Singapore, Lithuania, Thailand and Hungary to Manila and also plan to meet my Malaysian counterpart in Kuala Lumpur.

Moreover, these meetings should be viewed in terms of enhancing focused and broader bilateral, including trilateral, engagements. These, in turn, should not be

viewed as isolated, discrete actions but in the context of our efforts to reinforce a web of cooperation with all our partners.

Friends, ladies and gentlemen,

It is important to frame the Philippines’ foreign policy agenda in the context of our aim to become an upper middle income economy by 2025 and - in the longer term - to realize the national aspiration for all Filipinos to enjoy strongly-rooted, comfortable and secure lives by 2040.

We are trying to deliver on this promise.

We are reaping the rewards of steady reforms, investment in human development and infrastructure, and the demographic sweet spot.

With GDP growth at 5.6 percent, the Philippines outperformed all major Asian economies in 2023. This matched, and in cases, exceeded, forecasts of multilateral organizations and private analysts.

The government projects a GDP growth rate of 6.5 to 7.5 percent in 2024 despite domestic and external headwinds. This follows the post-pandemic recovery curve that saw a 7.6 percent GDP expansion in 2022, on the back of our robust domestic market and sound economic fundamentals.

These prospects have placed the Philippines among the world’s fastest growing large emerging markets, on track to become a one-trillion-dollar economy, one of the 8 biggest in Asia Pacific by 2033. We are projected to become the 17th biggest consumer market in the world by 2030 and one of the fastest-growing Asian economies in the 2050s.

Philippine foreign policy is well-aligned to government strategies to consolidate this positive economic momentum and leverage these prospects to advance the Philippine quality of life.

Thus, our foreign policy will seek to push the envelope – through partnerships, through confident engagements in the global markets, and reshaping rules in international economic institutions - to bring forward the Philippines’ arc of transformation as a green, digitized, connected, innovative, smart and inclusive economy. This falls within the wider concept of promoting economic security and economic resilience.

The Philippines is riding a crest of a pivotal economic expansion in a world navigating uncertainties and risks. We are in the middle of shifting global economic tapestries that will be dramatically different 30 to 40 years from now.

Thus, I wish to make a second point about our foreign policy agenda. It is one deeply conscious of the nation’s duty to contribute to global peace and prosperity and foster constructive multilateralism amidst change and challenge.

It is an over-arching objective of our policy that cooperation, dialogue and diplomacy remain the drivers of inter-state relations. Growth and prosperity thrive best in peace. Diplomacy bridges gaps and differences.

As the first Asian Republic and as one of the 51 founding members of the United Nations - one of only 3 from Asia - the Philippines is in the frontline of conversations for meaningful solutions to issues and challenges of the 21st century.

The world is maneuvering ever narrower pathways to end unacceptable human suffering in places such as Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, South Sudan and Haiti.

The Philippines intends to do its share within our means to support the global humanitarian system long overstretched to its limits, and meet demands for more novel approaches to bring peace to conflict areas. Under the guidance of the President, the DFA is working with the DILG and DND to revitalize Philippine contribution to peacekeeping troops worldwide. More than most countries with similar capacities, the Philippines has steadily increased its voluntary contributions, providing at least USD 5 million since 2019, mostly to humanitarian funds. During the pandemic, the Philippines was one among few middle income countries that pledged USD 1 million to the COVAX facility of the World Health Organization.

We will continue to invest in strengthening the governance of global institutions. To be more credible, they need to be more fair and more inclusive, but also agile, accountable, and responsive. President Marcos Jr. has said that no nation stands alone. Valuing the interconnectedness and interdependence of nations, we believe this holds the key to making peoples and communities everywhere safe and secure. This means much for the Philippines, with its diaspora of 10 million, who are assets wherever they are, but who are nevertheless not immune to perils of conflict, natural disaster or a pandemic.

We will also shore up global consensus for more sound migration governance frameworks, quality, sufficient and accessible climate finance through the UNFCCC Conference of Parties and its bodies including the Loss and Damage Fund, and new instruments such as the pandemic treaty, the plastics treaty and regulations for lethal autonomous weapons. The Philippines is hosting this year high-level conferences on Strategic Trade Management, Disaster Risk Resilience, Women and Peace and Security and Middle Income Countries.

This year, the Philippines will forge effective partnerships that coalesce around building climate, disaster and biodiversity resilience and fit-for-purpose solutions for inclusive development. We aim to extend our reach to promote South-South and technical cooperation, with Asia, the Pacific and Africa. We will seek to foster closer relations with Pacific island states mindful of our shared interests in maritime security, marine biodiversity, climate resilience, disaster preparedness, and public health.

Let me recall the remarks of President Marcos Jr. before the UNGA in 2022 where he underlined the value of global solidarity amidst complex challenges. He called for actions to solve inequality and inequities, solutions to the climate emergency, and regulation in response to the weaponization of new technologies. Most saliently, he affirmed the rule of law at the center of an international order based on the principles of justice and equity, the ballast that steadies our common vessel.

And this brings me to my third point:

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Philippines’ role as vanguard of the rule of law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as the fundamental and only arbiter of the overlapping claims and disputes in the South China Sea, can be seen as an extension of Philippine good global citizenship as a peacemaker, rule-shaper and consensus- builder, as much as it is about Philippine territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

With our principled rules-based approach on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea, the Philippines is championing nothing less, and nothing more, than what is just. When a state becomes a party to a Treaty, it is under a legal obligation to bring its laws and conduct into conformity with the Treaty. Efforts seeking to shape and use rules, going against international law, should be opposed or not accepted.

I have spoken a number of times against a tendency to over-characterize tensions in the South China Sea mainly as a function of the US-China strategic rivalry. Subscribing strictly to the prism of this rivalry does not help in an honest understanding of the situation.

Firstly, it puts distinct and legitimate rights and interests of countries such as the Philippines aside, and secondary to the interests of the rivals.

Secondly, it purposely obscures good judgment: actions that are clearly illegal in international law and against the UN Charter are sometimes rationalized under the pretext of this rivalry.

Thirdly, legitimate responses to illegal actions are at times viewed in the prism of this strategic rivalry. The use of terms such as “Cold War mentality” is paradoxical, because it is a paradigm long gone, and with no anchor in fact and the current situation.

As I have emphasized in many previous remarks, the future of the Indo Pacific, resting on abiding peace and resilience in the face of risks, is being shaped not just by one or two powers, but by many actors, each with their agency and legitimate interests and voice.

At the dawn of the global order as we know it, Philippine diplomacy has stood steadfastly for equality of peoples and nations and principles of justice, fairness and equity. The voice of each nation, and each human being, counts.

The Philippines stands by this indelible foreign policy footprint, especially as the nation steps into a new threshold of economic expansion.

Being the driver of global growth in the coming decades places Asian nations in the driver’s seat in terms of shaping the rules to make the 21st century an age of inclusion and equity.

The Philippines will continue to bear its responsibilities to preserve a rules-based international order with the UN at its center, support the pursuit of more prosperous, just, and humane societies, and contribute to international peace and security. We aim to do this as our campaign for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council for the term 2027-2028 shifts to a higher gear. We aim to harness our role as partner, pathfinder and peacemaker, and to present solutions integrating peace, people, and prosperity in a fuller spectrum of inclusive and sustainable development and taking into account the stakes and the voices of all.

In closing, I wish to convey my hope and trust that the members of the FOCAP will continue being objective, fair and judicious in presenting the Philippines to global audiences. You are part of the Filipino peoples’ journey. Bagong Pilipinas has gathered the Filipino nation around a re-forged national identity, and it has endowed our foreign policy with a more inspired sense of purpose.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to our interaction.

Thank you.