MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday urged global powers to refrain from pursuing their interests “at the expense of smaller countries” and urged nations to resolve disputes “peacefully.”
Speaking at the Nikkei Future of Asia Conference, Duterte said geopolitical competition among big powers adds another layer of complexity to regional security issues.
He urged global powers to “resist the temptation to pursue interests at the expense of smaller countries, in plain defiance of international law.”
“If Asia is to serve as an engine of global recovery, we all have to act responsibly within a system of norms, commitments, and obligations,” Duterte said in a speech.
“We have to resolve our disputes peacefully according to international law. We have to work together – not against each other – to achieve common ends,” he added.
While Duterte did not name any country, his statement comes after Manila’s repeated protests against the incursion of hundreds of Chinese boats into Philippine waters within the South China Sea. Beijing snubs the 2016 ruling by a United Nations-backed court that invalidated its claims to almost the entire South China Sea, within which is the smaller West Philippine Sea.
China is a rival of its fellow superpower the United States, a long-standing defense ally of the Philippines.
VACCINE COOPERATION
Duterte has pursued warm ties with China, which has supplied the bulk of the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccine supply. The President has said the maritime dispute is a separate issue from the jabs.
In his Nikkei speech, Duterte reiterated his call for global solidarity in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are only as strong as our weakest link as a country and as a region, and as one global community. This is why we need greater solidarity for collective, coordinated, and comprehensive responses. Inward-looking policies will lead us nowhere,” he said.
“The free movement of goods, capital, and services is the “key to recovery and shared prosperity,” said Duterte.
Leaders from Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as heads of international organizations, also took part in the conference organized by Nikkei Inc, the largest news group in Asia and the largest economic paper in Japan.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday urged global powers to refrain from pursuing their interests “at the expense of smaller countries” and urged nations to resolve disputes “peacefully.”
