MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. renewed his call Sunday to make the South China Sea a sea of peace, security, stability and prosperity and not an area of armed conflict or geopolitical discord. 

“Let us be guided by the universal principles of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation as laid out in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. As High Contracting Parties to the Treaty, we have a moral and legal obligation to work towards finding resolutions and not resort to inciting conflicts. That path leads us only to perdition,” the President said in his intervention during the 17th East Asia Summit.

The Philippines, as an archipelagic country with porous maritime borders, considers maritime cooperation as a key priority in bilateral and multilateral cooperation and engagements, specifically in the South China Sea, the President noted.

At the same time, Marcos said the Philippines welcomes engagements with states and organizations which respect ASEAN Centrality, especially in the priority areas of cooperation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, particularly maritime cooperation. 

The Philippine leader also called upon his colleagues in the ASEAN to continue engaging Myanmar stakeholders and to push for the urgent implementation of the Five-Point Consensus reached in Jakarta during the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting last April 2021. 

Dialog and engagements between concerned parties should also continue towards attaining lasting peace and stability in a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, Marcos said.

World leaders present in the event include Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, US President Joe Biden, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Kate Ardern, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, India Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, South Korea President Yoon Sukyeol and Australia Prime Minister Anthony Norman Albanese. (PND)