Meeting with Asia Society (Speech) 9/23/2022

uh thank you very much secretary Ricky Manalo and the members of the cabinet Mr. Kevin Rudd president of the Asia Society part of our delegation the house Speaker of the house Speaker Martin Ramaldes our ambassador to the United States Ambassadors girls of all this all the distinguished guests who have come to join us this afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is an honor for me to speak before this esteemed organization that is the Asia Society. Of course, I commend your efforts in providing a platform for dialogue and action in building bridges towards a common vision, a better future for all, a shared vision creates common interests that enable collective action during the Philippine presidential elections last May.

Our people gave me a majority mandate to lead a country of nearly 110 million inhabitants. This represents a shared vision of strength across Unity I. I called for Unity throughout that campaign and I am honored that my call for Unity resonated with my countrymen and echoed their desire for a better future. They rejected the politics of division like I did during the campaign and so far I have not said anything to offend any of the other candidates and I bring you that message of unity today in our place in the community of Nations. I have always said that the Philippines will continue to be a friend to all and an enemy to no one.

I will reiterate what I said during the inauguration. continue to be a good neighbor always finding ways to collaborate with the ultimate goal of mutually beneficial results if we agree we will cooperate and work together if we differ we will negotiate until we reach an agreement at the United Nations General Assembly of which I spoke the importance of dialogue and solidarity in the face of the numerous challenges and threats that we now have to face. This means making every effort to transcend our differences and commit to ending the conflict, we are forced to do so despite growing geopolitical tensions and competitive aggression. strategy that is transforming the global landscape, the United States undoubtedly plays an important leadership role in fostering an environment of stability and peace not only globally but certainly in our region.

We appreciate the United States' recognition of the strategic importance of the Indo-Pacific. area and its long-standing alliance with the Philippines in this regard, the special relationship between our two countries is indisputable that it is based on a long history of diplomatic relations and historical and cultural ties that existed before that formal link, that formal association between the USA. United States and the Philippines, after all, the United States is our only treaty ally. We believe that our alliance is an important foundation for substantial and sustainable cooperation between the Philippines and the United States in support of the Philippines' social economic development and security agenda.

On the security front we see collaboration. effectively implement the Defense agreements framework while enabling significant modernization of our armed forces and civilian law enforcement capabilities, as I clearly stated in my State of the Union address. I will not preside over any process that abandons even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power, we know that we can count on the United States to defend the international order based on law, freedom of navigation and overflight and the use and sustainable development of maritime resources, but equally important we look to the United States.

To promote peace, security and prosperity on our part, we will continue to work with China and other claimant states in order to resolve issues related to the West Philippine Sea through diplomacy and dialogue. The Philippines' candidacy for a non-permanent seat. The seat on the UN Security Council for the period 2027 to 2028 is based on my country's long years of experience in building peace and forging new paths of cooperation. In this context, we are certainly concerned about the rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, just north of the Philippines. We urge all parties involved to exercise maximum restraint. Dialogue and diplomacy must prevail.

We adhere to the one-China policy and have consistently called for the peaceful resolution of issues involving Taiwan. We understand that peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region are also linked. the situation on the Korean Peninsula and we are ready to play a constructive role in advancing a peaceful and denuclearized Korean Peninsula through confidence-building measures among various stakeholders in Russia and Ukraine. The Philippines urges all parties to continue to adopt peaceful means to maintain international peace. and security The Philippines has voted in favor of the three United Nations General Assembly resolutions on Ukraine and at this point let me discuss the various dialogue mechanisms in the region.

We will continue to work to strengthen ASEAN, particularly its dialogue. Associations with countries that defend regional peace and security, we welcome the renewed commitment of the Quad together with the recent establishment of the okus, these mechanisms should help prevent destabilizing actions in the region that go against international law, we believe that these mechanisms of dialogue and security agreements should complement, not supplant, ASEAN-focused regional agreements The security architecture that has been built over decades by ASEAN and its member partners, as well as the existing network of bilateral security partnerships in the region, now let me Address the economic front: The United States remains a strategic trade and investment partner of Philippine American companies. including Fortune 500 companies, have found a home in the Philippines.

They recognize the Philippines as a scam, as our country is our country for its business-friendly policies. A highly competent workforce and a network of economic zones. Let me point out three reasons why the Philippines is a viable and smart country. investment destination first our macroeconomic strength and bright prospects the Philippine economy expanded by 5.7 percent last year and 7.8 percent in the first half of this year growth was broad-based driven not only by public spending but also by household consumption and investments reinforced by consumers and business confidence second, we have conducive policies implemented recently investor-friendly laws were enacted and my administration is determined to take advantage of these changing reforms that will improve those efforts Third and perhaps the most important point another strong asset we have is our human capital of which we boast a young, educated, hardworking and English speaking workforce that is among the best in the world, with a very young average age of 25 ,7 years, the Philippines enjoys a demographic advantage that investors can benefit from.

We would welcome capital investment from the US and our priority. The sectors are agriculture, clean energy, particularly nuclear energy, health systems, information technology and business process management or itbpm, digital connectivity and manufacturing, including the critical sectors of semiconductors, green metals, batteries for electric vehicles and electric vehicles themselves. The Philippines is looking forward to how the Indo-Pacific economy will evolve. The framework will support our efforts to promote resilient supply chains, health systems infrastructure, as well as clean energy and decarbonization. These pillars are consistent with shared priorities as outlined in a joint vision statement for a US-Philippines partnership in the 21st century that was adopted last November. for the reauthorization of the generalized system of preferences or GSP program, which will greatly benefit both of our countries, the Republican Party's GSP has long been a win-win program, the United States and its development partners, including, for Of course, the Philippines.

These are interesting times and there are many things to achieve. The far-reaching harmful effects of the pandemic require us to revitalize our economies in a spirit of sustained cooperation and collaboration. We must use public and private resources effectively to encourage the expansion of trade. Investment. Technology transfers. Everything to accelerate our development. Facing the challenges of the pandemic and global economic crisis, the Philippines remains on track to achieve upper-middle-income status by next year with continued investments in infrastructure, agriculture, food security, public health, education and other social services. , we seek to become a high-income country. with zero extreme poverty by 2014.

The same spirit of solidarity and cooperation that animates our relations with foreign partners will also drive our efforts to address climate change; We must improve our collective capacity to respond urgently and decisively to this existential threat that not only the Philippines but the entire world is facing certainly the world continues to face enormous challenges but I am confident in the future because I have 110 million reasons to be, such is my faith in the Filipino people and the relationship we have with the United States. States and our other allies, partners and Friends with the continued support of our only treaty ally, we know that we can make a better future a reality, thank you and good afternoon, thank you very much, Mr.

President, 110 million people, yes, that is even for an Australian. That may turn out to make it the second most populous country in Southeast Asia, so, Indonesians, yes, the Philippines, next with its great advantages that you just said of having 110 million native English speakers, this is quite remarkable, so I'm really surprised. Because of the economic vision that you are presenting for the country, in a previous discussion today you indicated that there are still some challenges, the digitalization of the economy has been slow, but in terms of the future, if we look at the digital economy, the renewable energy transformation energy, but also future security.

Supply chains give us an idea of ​​where the country is expected to be economically at the end of this term. To put it very simply, I have been asked what is the absolute end result that we expect. achieve and it is very simple for me no more, not a hungrier Filipino and that is very simple it is a very simple goal but I dare say that it is not necessarily a simple problem to solve and it requires a lot of effort and thought on the part of the sector public but it is the responsibility of the public sector to address this social problem that we are facing, we are getting involved, this is the new policy of this Administration, we are involving the public sectors in the private sector, rather as partners in that effort, we hope to take advantage of everything that the government can do to maximize the effects of the development that we can foster and for the benefit of those who have come. to help us, our partners, our investors and of course for the benefit of the ordinary Filipino, and when I took office, of course, the main concern was the economy, the main concern was the livelihood of the Filipinos and it is That's why we have come. until the conclusion with economic administrators that we have committed to and have asked to join the government.

I believe we have the best and brightest of our economic managers, all of whom have a long history of success and true understanding. of the problems that Filipinos face and also a real understanding of what we need to do to solve those problems and again we have managed to involve our public private sector partners and be part of this effort and I don't think we can do it. do this ourselves in the public sector to take that point a little further. I would say not just the private sector partners in the Philippines, but also the partnerships between the Philippine governments and the Philippines as partners, allies and friends, as we all emerge from the pandemic and try to revitalize and transform our economy.

I believe that the partnerships we establish among our friends and allies around the world will provide the stability we will need as we face a new world and confront the problems that really exist. We have not faced the pandemic before and we have not faced it before and now we have to find new solutions. In our view, business as usual simply has no place in that, because it's not business as usual, the pandemic has basically changed everything. We live differently. We work differently, we study differently, our social contacts are made differently, as you can imagine, this now leads to that digitalization process that we all must undertake if we are to be part of the new global economy and many of these, many of We have tried to analyze these aspects of the economy and, of allAnyway, it strikes me that when we sit down with economic managers and talk about industrialization, we talk about energy supply, we talk about digitalization and, at the root of this, at the heart of the problem was our agricultural sector.

You would think that the high-tech industries would be the ones that would hold the key and they do in many ways, but anything we can do with the new industries still has to be based on a very strong and reliable agricultural sector, the pandemic showed very clearly. the weaknesses that the Philippines has in terms of being able to provide a strategic supply of food to our compatriots at the price they can pay and that for us has been Actually the first step is to try to improve the production of agricultural products and of course this has become terribly difficult due to the impacts that the agricultural sector has suffered, perhaps not only in the Philippines but around the world, the impacts that the conflict in Ukraine has caused us is a constant surprise to all of us, but we have to learn to live with the fact that a conflict in Eastern Europe should affect the Philippines at a level as deep and basic as agriculture, with fertilizer prices rising with the Prices of agricultural commodities rising with uncertainties and supply, so now we have to go to what we describe as non-traditional sources and we have to diversify.

I don't think this is unique to the Philippines. I see it in many of the other countries, so those are the first steps. I think we will have to do with agriculture. and then we have to correct our weaknesses in the bureaucracy, we have to learn to be more efficient, we have to rationalize our civil service both nationally and locally and unfortunately the Philippines in these areas we are still playing ball. -up but that's not what it's not where we want to go it's not just where we want to go we don't want to just catch up we want to go beyond that we have no interest in returning to pre-pandemic levels what we are interested in is thriving further and position the Philippines in such a way that we can take full advantage of the new economies and new industries that have unfortunately emerged from many of the traditional sectors that we had depended on during the pre-pandemic days, will cease to exist. , have ceased to exist and we have to identify it as quickly as possible and have a good vision and forecast for the future to position the Philippines in such a way that we can be a part. of the transformation of the global economy, thank you for that Mr.

President, you mentioned a couple of times that you are a treaty ally of the United States, and we Australians are five of us in Asia, sometimes it can be difficult to deal with the Americans. How come you will get any contradiction from the Philippines? But they are good people and they have been reliable security partners, so tell me in a few words how you are doing with Uncle Sam because he was not doing so well with President Duterte. in a sense, well, never in a sense, despite the fact that my predecessor, President Duterte, had a very different treatment of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines, the basic premise of the strong relationship that has developed between United States and the Philippines.

Over more than 100 years, there is recognition that the time we had a formal diplomatic relationship is stronger than ever and that it is necessary, especially with the events of recent weeks and months, maybe yes, well, what What has happened is that many times I had felt that in recent years there was a feeling that we had reached a kind of modus vivendi in our region and that is that we know that we have found a way to live with each other. at peace and found a way to calm the waters whenever things go a little wrong, but again, the events of the last few months have really pointed out that those problems hadn't gone away, they were just bubbling underneath. the surface and now they have come to the surface and we have to face those challenges and we have to deal with them so that the United States, the partnership between the United States and the Philippines is certainly going to be a very, very important part of being able to handle the problems that we have been facing, I think it is not a surprise to anyone that the Philippines has some of these conflicts with the People's Republic of China and the position that the Philippines takes is that we do not have any territorial conflict with China, what we have is that China claims territory that It belongs to the Philippines, so this is the position we take and with our American partners we have promoted that position.

We have also made it very clear. to our friends in Beijing, uh, this is the way we feel about this and as a consequence of this challenge that we have, this diplomatic challenge, this territorial challenge that we have, I would like to point out that this is the first national challenge. elections in the Philippines where foreign policy was an issue for the general people, in our experience, foreign policy, the common citizen, the common voter, I would say well, foreign policy is not really our concern that the experts in The government decides that, but when it happens. that our fishermen are not allowed to continue their livelihood by fishing in areas where they have fished for the last 30 or 40 generations, then it becomes a problem directly in the guts of our people and that is where we are now, listen .

With regard to what you said in your comments on the West Philippine Sea and your recent stated position of the government in terms of the decision of the permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016. So, given China's stance, which in recent times generally does not It is through gray ships, that is warships, but through ships of other colors, sometimes Coast Guard vessels and Tom Sims fishing fleets and sometimes fishing fleets made up of hundreds of very together, looking ahead over the next two years, what would you ask our Chinese friends to do differently? It's a it's uh nobody wants to go to war the only thing we should avoid is a shooting war and I have always said that the fundamental principle that guides our foreign policy is peace we talk about the economy we say that we are in crisis there are many things that we must do we have good plans for it we are very optimistic we are very optimistic about the future but all these things will be in vain if there is a conflict in the uh there is conflict in the Regional Australia is certainly a strong partner in all these actions that we have been trying to support.

In the case of the Philippines, it is clear that militarily there is no comparison between the Philippines and China in terms of capability. of um uh of uh force military force if it comes to that, no matter what we are, we believe that the force that we can apply will come again from the partnerships that we have with countries like Australia, with our ASEAN members, with the rest of our countries. of our friends and allies in the region and that is why I think ASEAN will have to play a stronger role in all of these discussions and in trying again to keep the peace and slowly and continue to engage China because once that engagement stops then there is no progress and then things could very easily deteriorate and that is not what we want to happen, so we have tried, bilaterally with China, although maintaining our position in terms of our maritime territories and their fishing rights, our economic zones.

However, we have tried to continue to engage China on that basis on those issues, but also engage China in other aspects, people-to-people dealings. relations, even the economic relations that we have fostered with China, even some of the other exchanges that we have had in terms of education in terms of cultural exchanges in terms of all the other things I have always said that to my Chinese friends and I told them that Let's not make our differences regarding the maritime, such as baselines, economic zones, etc., let's not make that the defining element of our relationship because that is the only defining relationship.

If that is going to be the defining part of our relationship then we are really stuck and hopefully if we make progress in other areas it will help. I always quote that, the way the United States, for example, and China came together was through ping pong, if you remember, it was because the Chinese ping pong captain played with the United States ping pong captain and they became friends and ping pong went from China to the United States and this led to Richard Nixon going to China and establishing diplomatic relations so maybe that's something so we should explore everything we should explore every avenue uh we do it G2G government to government basketball could we do that basketball could be another another but no way we never know, you never know? uh, where progress will come from, so you have to try everything, you can't rule anything out, uh, and uh, limit yourself only to the traditional ways of negotiating, the traditional ways of dealing with these kinds of problems, uh, we have to be to understand, I would say. that we have been successful and that little by little we have begun to redefine or rather not not redefine but add to that relationship in other aspects of diplomatic life of political life within the region and I think that has happened again because of the strong The partnerships that we have with other countries our allies in the region and in that way the united front that we can present I think is a very important aspect of that commitment in his

speech

before he also made positive reference to quads and orcas and That follows, I think, from the logic you just explained about those, beyond the Philippines, whom you can rely on for support on security policies.

Your reflections on how the quad, for example, helps strategic stability in the region, would be of interest. I'm sure for this audience and within that their point of view and vision of their future relationship with Japan. Well, the quad is certainly another one of those complaints that we think will be a partnership between countries that I think again if we were to move. Like helping a country on its own, it wouldn't be as effective as if we addressed the problem as part of this diplomatic political occupation, even military occupations that we've organized, so again it's something that's fundamental to the way we try to do it. to address the issues that we are facing regarding the maritime disputes that we have, I have to remind people that these maritime issues are not only with China, but we also have some disputes within ASEAN with our other member countries, but in My opinion, this also applies, these types, these types of partnerships, I think they are very, very important now, Japan, certainly, I had a

meeting

with the prime minister, Prime Minister Kishida, the other day and, naturally, I think .

It is no surprise to anyone that they are terribly worried, not only about China but also about us, given the recent event in which we have focused on the situation in Taiwan, the visit of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan once again highlighted the latent tensions. which, like I said, were below the surface but now they've come to the surface, but if you remember, if we go back maybe six months, it was North Korea that we were very concerned about and that's exactly what I think that aspect of Es that Japan is also concerned because when you have missiles flying over your skies and into the sea, it's not that surprising that Japan would be alarmed and again that's part of the relationship that we have. between uh between allied countries Japan is an ally Japan is a friend and a partner in many many ways again and again we feel that we need to strengthen that and continue um we continue to promote that partnership the difference between the difference between um Right now anyway, between the conflicts or disagreements between China and the rest of the countries around the area and Korea, Korea has threatened to use nuclear weapons and that would be a complete disaster and there is no way that the Philippines will be in any way exempt from that type of conflict and it is very interesting to look at what is happening in Russia and Ukraine and it is very worrying because if there is a possibility that nuclear weapons will suddenly become even tactical nuclear weapons, not strategic nuclear weapons but tactical nuclear weapons. part of that equation then we will see the normalization of nuclear weapons as uh and we will with nuclear weapons become conventional weapons and perhaps that will encourage other nuclear powers to exercise that nuclear option which, as we all know, is being a uh it's really the end of the world scenario, so to take this a little further, we're now beyond, we're beyond the Cold War, um, no, I don't subscribe to spheres of influence.

As we did during the Cold War, for us to see that nuclear weapons should not exist, we should know that we should abandon the idea of ​​nuclear weapons as a deterrent and actually work to reduce the stockpile of nuclear weapons. or in the world and, of course, the ideal outcome is that they are taken away from us and that we don't have anyone with nuclear weapons now, that's easier said than done, it's easier said than done becauseEvery country that has nuclear weapons has a different point of view on the issue and they feel like they have to have it because they have enemies that they feel like they have to be deterred, so I think that's where we leave off where we go, if we take it that far, it's the most how far we can go.

Conflict analysis is something we dream of, something we pray for, but the path to that end is certainly unclear, as there are so many varied and different opinions on the subject. uh, vis-a-vis the individual, the situations of uh, of two of those countries that have nuclear arsenals, so this is the thinking that we have developed and this is the thinking that we have tried to embrace to our friends and neighbors. Your comments simply Now, in terms of legitimizing the use of tactical nuclear weapons, I think it is extraordinarily important, the more of us in the international community who are in the service of political leaders like you who make that clear to our friends in Moscow, the better if we cross that threshold, we'll be in a different world of pain um internal politics um sixty percent of the vote in your election pretty impressive um the best I did was 53. so obviously a better activist than me my friend so uh um but in domestic politics and uh and I We are always going in this direction with all of our guests at the Chinese Foreign Minister's

meeting

here yesterday.

Concerns were raised during President Duterte's administration about human rights in the Philippines and particularly in its anti-drug campaign, some questions today about legal action against his Nobel Laureate and Maria Ressa and then even the State Department's report, its annual report. he refers to several hundred continuing political prisoners, so in his Reflections I noticed what he said earlier about unification. All Filipinos, could you give us your thoughts on the future of human rights in the Philippines? Well, the argument or rather the discussion about human rights in the Philippines in recent years really stems from the anti-drug war that President Duterte waged. and when I take office, you look and you see that we cannot stop the war on drugs, the problem continues to exist, what we can do is examine and learn lessons from the experience of the past administration and be To go into a little more detail , I think we've discovered that, certainly, my view is that law enforcement, which has been the part of the war on drugs that has been most vigorously pursued by President Duterte, only gets you so far. and my approach is slightly different and we look at the drug problem in the Philippines and it is important.

I guess according to official statistics there are about four and a half million real addicts in the Philippines and that corrosive the corrosive effect of uh on

society

on crime on drug syndicates Etc. even the politicization of the uh of all the drug syndicates and their networks um it's something that we still have to deal with and that's why maybe we should look, we should look at it, we should look at it instead of just law enforcement, which will continue, but in a more focused way . uh I'm saying it I'm saying it when I first came to my first command conference with our police officers and I said we're going to do it we're going to do it. let us adjust our approach and look at prevention as well, let us educate people our young people to say you know this is a dead end, this is not going to get you anywhere, it's going to take you to jail, it's going to take you to jail . you killed, and even if you don't, this will take away your future and the second part of that is to heal, to be more sensitive and more understanding to those who have actually gotten caught up enough in this lifestyle and that's it. something that we are now promoting, we are trying to learn what the best methods are now to get our victims out, it really is what they are, to get them out of that culture and help them start over and live in the liver. such a good life then and constructive members and contributing members of

society

now as far as law enforcement to put it bluntly, I just told them look, I'm not interested in the kid who makes 100 pesos a week. selling marijuana that's not the person I want you to go after I want you to go after people who, if we get them, if we neutralize them, imprison them, lock them up, whatever it is, we will make a real difference so that the drug supply, the system of distribution, the drug import system, because a lot of it really comes from abroad, that will really make a difference, it will stop it and that is what we are working on. right now, so those are the different elements of those three elements of the year of this government's anti-drug effort, uh, although those are the focus has certainly changed and even the methodology has changed, well, thank you because there was a Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa I know there is some kind of legal case involving her at the moment.

What are the prospects? Is he caught in her court or is it because she is a Nobel Prize winner? There is international concern with her case. Also, if it really were like that, what happened with María Ressa and Rappler is that it was determined that it is a foreign company and that is not allowed in our rules in our law and what is its situation at this moment. nothing to do with her political leadership uh what happened is that an individual filed cyber libel cases against her and that's what she's facing now so that's the situation with Maria Ressa Rappler who actually continues to operate you can , uh, you can look. he and searches for them on the Internet, they make their comments and they publish and they continue to operate that way, however, she, the one that she herself personally faces, I think they are two cases of cyber defamation and We just, you know, we have a very delimitation clear power in our political system, very similar to the American system, where we have the executive, the judiciary and the legislative, and they are co-equal, so it is highly inappropriate for the executive to interfere in the legislature or the judiciary, So at the end of a week here in New York you've had a lot of meetings, did you have fun?

Wellness in New York is always fun, uh, I haven't done it. state, I haven't been to New York for a long time, in fact, yes, for some reason, I think we were looking, we were calculating it with my wife Lisa, who is here, we calculated what 22 years since we returned to New York put together your hands for the first lady of the Philippines hmm, it's been 22 years, she practiced law here for many years, huh, and that's why she's really part of that song. She's a New York native, um and we missed it. We miss him terribly.

I also spent a lot of time in New York. Maybe not as a permanent resident or working here, but simply because I learned to enjoy and really have a great affection for the city and its people. It was terrible and we are very happy to have the opportunity to return, but about us, I would say that she has had a better opportunity to have fun in New York. During what we've been in, I've tried very hard to maximize every hour that I've been here to make these contacts, and as you describe, I have a lot of meetings that I think have gone pretty well, but like I said, well, I don't.

It's, it doesn't take much just to be able to look out my window and just see New York all the way to Central Park, see New York at night, walk down the street and get my subreddit and my Souvlaki sandwich. cats eat pastrami on rye hey did you go where the bagels are to bring you back and I'm a happy camper it doesn't take much yeah well I have the same feeling about this town and for a small town I don't is? Bad, Mr. President, uh, as you said, you and the week of the general assembly, it always seemed to me a bit like speed dating for heads of government, you know, at the door, outside, the door, at the door, outside, the door, um, you are a very welcome guest here at the Asia Society in our center in Manila run by Doris ho put your hands together by Doris we are a global family we have 15 centers around the world and even in Australia but we have five centers here in the United States you are always a welcome guest here because we wish your country, the Philippines, all the best for the future.

Thank you, Mr. President, thank you, Mr. Kevin Rudd, for those kind words and thank you to all the members of the Asia Society for this warm welcome that you have extended to me. You are very much true