Remarks by
HON. ENRIQUE A. MANALO
Secretary for Foreign Affairs
The Philippines-Vietnam Strategic Partnership in an Age of Change
Geneva Conference Hall, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
01 August 2023
Dr. Pham Lan Dung, Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam;
Dr. Nguyen Hung Son, Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy and our moderator for today;
Ambassador Ma. Teresita Daza, Director-General of the Philippine Foreign Service Institute;
Philippine Ambassador to Vietnam Meynardo Montealegre;
ASEAN Ambassadors;
Excellencies and esteemed members of the foreign diplomatic corps;
Dear friends and colleagues;
Ladies and gentlemen;
It is with great honor to be invited to address you today on this important topic.
At the outset, I wish to convey my thanks to the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam for this opportunity.
I also convey my gratitude to Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son for inviting me to Hanoi this week so that we can undertake the 10th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation, which we will hold tomorrow.
While this is my first bilateral visit to a fellow ASEAN member state since I became Secretary for Foreign Affairs last year in July, I have visited Vietnam on many occasions, and I am always grateful for the kind and warm hospitality and reception that Vietnamese friends have consistently extended to me.
Allow me to begin my remarks by recollecting the long and storied history of friendship between our peoples and how it has provided a rich backdrop for charting the course of the Philippines-Vietnam partnership.
Historical records attest to the lively trade and cultural interaction between our peoples in the maritime economy that flourished in our region well before the Western colonizers came in the 16th century.
Such ties not only enriched our societies; they also laid the foundation for bonds of kinship between our two nations: indelible, inspiring and important in this day and age, as we are now in the middle of what is called the Asia Pacific century.
The vibrancy of the Philippines and Vietnam in contemporary times, and the vitality of our roles in shaping the contours of this century owe themselves to our peoples’ respective triumphs in reclaiming our destinies as free and self-determining peoples.
For we share histories marred by the dark shadows of colonization as well as victories earned by our forebears from their brave struggles against foreign rule. We enjoy freedom and independence paid for by the blood of our ancestors.
This common experience has deep resonance in the approach of the Philippines and Vietnam to foreign policy.
We are vanguards of the sacrosanct principles of sovereignty and equality of nations.
Our diplomacy engages with the international community to advance our national interest, and serve the causes of peace and development. These are the twin requisites for the community of nations to flourish.
ASEAN provides us the platform to express our vision. Together with other ASEAN member states, we have built a regional grouping that has held itself well vis-a-vis other similar groupings and organizations, thriving through nearly six decades to project the spirited pursuit by 10 countries of Southeast Asia of a peaceful and prosperous region. Our community has weathered challenges together: financial crises, differences, conflicts.
And ASEAN stands – for the region and the world – as a beacon for the resilience of the collective.
And today, perhaps more than in the past decades, conditions abound that call out to this time-tested resilience of ASEAN.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
Our community inhabits a region that is on one hand, an engine of global growth and on the other hand, a theater of geopolitical tensions and shifts that must be managed to preserve the peace and stability required for the uninterrupted unfolding and development of the Asia Pacific century.
Aside from the existential threat of global warming, which affects all corners of the globe, challenges in our region encompass transnational threats, maritime disputes, and non-traditional security issues. The complexions of the US-China rivalry is a reality being felt worldwide; all the more so, in our region. The paradigm of the Indo-Pacific and new arrangements have also emerged.
Amidst this landscape before us, I believe four realities hold:
First: ASEAN is at the core of this region. It must hold its center as a lead actor in the regional security architecture.
Second: The dynamics in this region is such that its future is being shaped not by one or two powers, but by many actors including ASEAN and states like the Vietnam and the Philippines.
Third: A rules-based order should anchor regional peace and stability. Adherence by states to norms and international law operationalizes the essence of mutual respect and equity, preserves predictability in inter- state relations and enables the rule of law to prevail over any form of coercion, intimidation, or the use and threat of force in contravention of the principles of ASEAN and the United Nations Charter.
Fourth and last: Anxieties on geopolitical tensions should not detract the region from the pursuit of economic prosperity and development. Southeast Asia is currently ahead of the global curve in post-pandemic recovery. We must sustain this momentum.
It is within this evolving geopolitical context that the Philippines and Vietnam are setting the course of our Strategic Partnership.
By its very foundation, our strategic partnership claims our stake and agency in defining the future of our region. It underlines a high level of mutual confidence, trust, and respect: between us and in what our relationship can do for the good of our region.
Vietnam holds a special place in Philippine foreign relations. It is one of the Philippines’ two Strategic Partners, and the only one within ASEAN.
The establishment of this Strategic Partnership in 2015 was pivotal, for it reoriented our ties to be more forward-looking in its approach, and strategic in its outlook.
Then, a clear objective was the consolidation of the ASEAN Community in an increasingly globalized and interdependent world economy.
Now, 8 years later, the task of consolidating ASEAN continues amidst changing geopolitics that demand a sound regional security architecture in which ASEAN plays a central and steadying force.
There is the clear intention in our Strategic Partnership to realize the full potential of our ties to bring gains for our people and dividends for the ASEAN Community and the region at large.
We must deliver on this intention.
Let me briefly share some thoughts on this:
Our Plan of Action for 2019-2024 outlines the possibilities to advance our collaboration in defense, trade and investment, maritime security, agriculture, education, tourism, environment, as well as information and communication technology (ICT).
Both the Philippines and Vietnam have experienced robust economic growth in recent years. While the COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed our progress, it also highlighted our resilience as evidenced by the relatively strong economic recovery of our two countries.
The Philippines and Vietnam must seek to help each other and the region achieve more economic sustainability and resilience, at all levels: from our institutions to communities, and across economic sectors and industry.
Agriculture and food security will always be important facets of our ties. The Philippines’ partnership with Vietnam, especially as a source of rice imports, has been instrumental in bolstering my country’s food supply.
Collaborating on building economic resilience is even more critical as we face economic headwinds brought about by supply chain disruptions, inflation, increasing protectionism, and geopolitical instability.
The re-opening of the Philippines’ Trade and Investment Center in Ho Chi Minh City last year emphasized our seriousness in cultivating broader economic engagement, especially in the context of our endeavors to optimize the benefits of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Framework.
A future-oriented approach also entails tapping new opportunities to cooperate in non-traditional sectors such as ICT, digitalization, innovation, climate-smart technologies, disaster risk resilience, health security, green energy among others.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
Our geographies and status as major littoral and claimant states in the South China Sea make maritime cooperation a vital point of interaction between our two countries, as economic and security partners. As in centuries prior, this body of water connects our peoples, despite some differences.
Beyond its strategic significance, the South China Sea is the lifeblood of millions of Filipinos and Vietnamese people who depend on the sea for livelihood.
As maritime nations at the heart of this seascape, it is a given that we consider safe and secure seas and sound marine ecosystems as integral to the future of our peoples and our region.
Our two countries have in the past set a precedent for the responsible stewardship of these waters with a series of joint marine research expeditions of our scientists in the 1990s. We must press further on in exploring novel modes of cooperation in maritime safety, search and rescue, marine scientific research, and marine environmental protection.
Achieving maritime security is a powerful impetus for our Strategic Partnership. Through the Philippines-Vietnam Joint Permanent Working
Group on Maritime and Ocean Concerns, we discuss challenges and explore joint initiatives for the effective management of our competing claims in this area, with the overarching goal of preserving regional peace and stability.
The Philippines and Vietnam also benefit from the rules-based order which has been the bedrock of peace and prosperity in our region.
Our Strategic Partnership must affirm that we are invested in keeping the seas open and free for the enjoyment of our peoples, and that disputes must be managed and resolved peacefully in accordance with international norms and laws, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as well as the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea.
Along these lines and until the resolution of these disputes, the Philippines and Vietnam share a distinctive responsibility in working to achieve a substantive and effective Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, and seeing to its conclusion at the earliest opportunity.
Allow me to also add that being guardians of peace in our region requires us to engage actively in all multilateral endeavors where the global security architecture is being reinforced to address emerging challenges in the conventional, space and cyber domains, including but not only, the use of artificial intelligence and new technologies for military purposes. We must work with ASEAN and like-minded countries beyond ASEAN, to ensure that these new domains of human activities are governed wisely and do not add to strategic instability, and most importantly, do not pose threats to our people and societies.
In conclusion, let me affirm: our Strategic Partnership infuses the age-old connection between our two countries with a shared sense of responsibility to be engaged partners, for our mutual benefit, and for preserving and enhancing the conditions for peace and prosperity in our region.
In our handshake that symbolizes this partnership are the same hands that assume stewardship of the good for our region and beyond, through uncertainties and change.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.