(Eagle News)–President Bongbong Marcos on Friday, May 31, urged countries in the Indo-Pacific Region to reject any narrative that seeks to impose a hierarchy among nations.
“We must reject unjust narratives that seek to subsume distinct national interests [into] so-called ‘major country’ dynamics,” he said in his speech during the 21st International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
According to the President, after all, “those who came before us worked painstakingly throughout the last century to bury the era of spheres of influence and of buffer states.”
“We should not allow its ghost to haunt our region once again,” President Marcos said.
According to the President, countries should also “support ASEAN’s efforts to build a rules-based, people-oriented, and people-centered regional community.”
He said that any state that “professes a stake in the continued peace and stability of this region must respect ASEAN Centrality not only with words, but with action.”
Amidst misleading narratives that seek to discredit international legal procedures, he said there was a need to reaffirm that these modalities are an expression of good faith.
He said these are a service to the progressive development and codification of international law.
“They are never an unfriendly act,” he said.
