Southeast Asian countries should steadfastly maintain restraint and adhere to international law as acts of aggression across Asia and “unilateral actions” elsewhere in the world threaten the rules-based global order, Manila’s top diplomat said yesterday.
ASEAN also does not recognize the Burmese elections that ended this month, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Theresa Lazaro said.
She did not provide details of the geopolitical alarm she raised before her counterparts in the 11-member ASEAN who were holding their first major closed-door meetings this year in the Philippines’ central seaside city of Cebu.
Photo: AFP
However, China’s intensifying aggressive stance on Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea have troubled the region for years, while several members have expressed deep concern over the secretive US strike that resulted in the arrest of deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on orders from US President Donald Trump.
Calling out China and the US, among the largest trading and defense partners of ASEAN members, has been a dilemma and diplomatic tightrope.
“Across our region, we continue to see tensions at sea, protracted internal conflicts and unresolved border and humanitarian concerns,” Lazaro said in her opening speech before ASEAN counterparts.
“At the same time, developments beyond Southeast Asia, including unilateral actions that carry cross-regional implications, continue to affect regional stability and erode multilateral institutions and the rules-based international order,” she said.
“These realities underscore the interim importance of ASEAN’s time-honored principles of restraint, dialogue and adherence to international law in seeking to preserve peace and stability to our peoples,” she said.
Meanwhile, ASEAN’s nonrecognition of the elections in Myanmar, which a military-backed party claimed to have won, is a major blow to efforts by the country’s military rulers to gain international recognition.
The regional bloc, which includes Myanmar, has refused to recognize the military-ruled government since the army forcibly wrested power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021. The power grab has plunged the impoverished country in a deadly civil war.
Asked in a news conference if the bloc did not recognize the elections in Myanmar, Lazaro said: “Yes, as of now,” adding that ASEAN “has not endorsed the three phases of the elections that were held.”
Lazaro did not elaborate how the regional bloc’s stance could possibly change.
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