Shun US-China row, ASEAN urged
NONTHABURI, Thailand – President Duterte is dissuading the Southeast Asian regional bloc from taking sides in the trade row between the United States and China.
Speaking at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit plenary, the President said the region should avoid getting embroiled in the “dangerous” geopolitical game.
The 10 ASEAN leaders gathered for the annual summit amid the regional concerns including the trade war between the United States and China as well as the South China Sea dispute involving Beijing and
other claimant-nations.
With the rise of a new major power, referring to China, Duterte said the regional landscape is “changing fast and creates question on the ASEAN’s ability to hold to its centrality in an environment of heightened competition,” a Palace press statement read.
“Countries must not take sides to avoid being embroiled in a geopolitical game, he added,” the Palace said.
Instead of choosing sides, the President said the Philippines has adopted an independent foreign policy by forging new relations with its non-traditional partners.
“It drags countries into a vicious cycle of power balancing and security dilemmas and undo hard-won gains of peace and development for their people. The ASEAN, he said, must not allow this to happen,” the Palace said.
He noted that the country supports an open, inclusive and rulesbased regional architecture, insisting that “isolating anyone and forcing countries to choose sides is a dangerous game to play.”
The President appealed to his fellow leaders to “build on the achievements of the past and make ASEAN even stronger to face the challenges of the present.”
In a separate statement, Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo admitted that the President discussed the changing regional landscape “which recognizes the rise of the dragon (China) in a world still dominated by a soaring eagle (United States).”
Panelo said Duterte mentioned that past administrations made a “strategic mistake” when it chose sides in the regional affairs.
He said the President is expected to further elaborate the country’s position on matters related to ASEAN as well as issues beneficial to Filipinos and the rest of the ASEAN member states during the remainder of his trip to Thailand.
Duterte was expected to attend the formal opening of the 35th ASEAN summit and related meetings on Sunday. He will also participate in several summits, including the ASEAN meetings with dialogue partners such as China, Japan, Korea, United States, and the United Nations.
He is scheduled to return to the Philippines on Monday.
The President raised the alarm over the US-China trade row and its impact not only the global economy but also food security.
China and the United States have been trying to resolve trade war that has shaken the global economy amid mounting appeals from the international community to end it. The US earlier announced a possible interim trade agreement with China and suspended a tariff increase planned for October.
The two countries were supposed to sign an initial trade pact at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Chile later this month but the meeting was cancelled due to violent civil protests in the capital of Santiago.
In recent months, the two giant economies imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on their products that reportedly rattled the financial markets and affected global economic growth.