We join others in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in welcoming milestones achieved recently by the 10-nation bloc and the 20-member European Union.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., home from a three-day Commemorative Summit in Brussels, has referred to these mileposts as country coordinator for ASEAN in the 10th meeting of the group and described them as “clear commitments from both sides, an active partnership for the post-COVID economic recovery of our region.”
These milestones include the adoption of the plan of action to implement the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership for 2023-2027 last August.
Under this plan, ASEAN and the EU will pursue cooperation in conformity with their respective member states’ obligations under international law, and in accordance with member states’ domestic laws, regulations and policies.
The President also cited the signing of the ASEAN-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (CATA) in October, the world’s first bloc-to-bloc air transport agreement which reflects the latest policy thinking in air transport regulation.
“As coordinator of our relations from 2022 to 2024, I assure you of the Philippines’ continuing efforts to sustain successful and vibrant relations between our regions, and as always the case, we are stronger together than we are alone,” he said.
The Philippines has been the ASEAN-EU country coordinator since 2021 and will stay in that role until 2024.
The 10th ASEAN-EU Business Summit aimed to reinforce the existing strong trade and investment relationship between ASEAN and the EU and reignite Europe’s interest in Southeast Asia as a region of opportunities.
At the same time, we are buoyed up by the strategic support of the European Union in regard to the rule of law in disputed areas, particularly in the South China Sea.
Replying to questions, the 65-year-old Filipino leader said the strategic support of the European Union placed the ASEAN and the Philippines in “a very strong position” to negotiate issues as regards the South China Sea.
At the press conference of the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit, the President talked of concrete steps, underscoring that objections to violations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would be stronger if raised by a group of nations such as the ASEAN and the EU.
He said the EU’s commitment, readable in the joint declaration to “the doctrine of behaviors in the South China Sea, is already a very, very big step for us in the Philippines, for example, and all the countries around the South China Sea.”
China, invoking its historical nine-dash line, is claiming most of the South China Sea.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China’s claims and upheld the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as provided under the UNCLOS.
We raise our hopes that the rule of law will shine despite the differences in political persuasion.