APD | Fairness and equality needed for a stable global order, said Philippines President

By APD writer Melo M. Acuña

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte said when he assumed office in mid-2016 he corrected “an oversight of strategic proportion” in foreign policy.

Speaking Thursday afternoon in Sochi, Russia at the Plenary Session of the Valdai International Discussion Club, President Duterte said for about 20 years after the Cold War, Philippine foreign policy “hardly evolved.”

“Russia, for instance, remained on the margins of our diplomacy,” he said. He added he is grateful to President Vladimir Putin for the opportunity to reaffirm commitments to a robust and comprehensive Philippines-Russia partnership.

“I’m talking about fairness and equality for a stable global order,” he said as the liberal global order built after the Second World War was the Pax Americana.

He added with the 21st Century, the legitimacy of Pax Americana is “increasingly questioned, its appeal weakened, and its hold over countries diminished.” He underscored the combination of exceptionalism and double standards which prevailed over the years.

“Developing countries like the Philippines, with our own histories, face different challenges and in our problems that would require different sets of solutions. Yet, some so-called friends act like they know the answers to our problems and impervious to our socio-economic and political conditions,” he explained. He said countries create rules and norms for almost everyone such as the UNCLOS, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He referred to the use of human rights which had damaging consequences to people they vowed to protect as in the chaos and instability that took place in Libya and Iraq.

“Closer to home, some of our partners have hurled unfair criticisms against my Government about perceived excesses in our fight against drugs,” the 74-year old Philippine president said. He asked if this is the way friends treat each other.

President Duterte said those who criticize his policies against drugs simply try to weaken the government’s resolve to protect law-abiding citizens from outlaws.

“Let me be very clear, I am not against the United States of the West. The US is a close friend of the Philippines-in fact out only treaty ally. We have deep ties with the American people, forged by shared history and nourished by common values. America certainly can offer so much to the world,” he further said.

He said he assumes the Russian people and all nations want fairness, equality and mutual respect and a rules-based order where countries are treated the same.

He cited the importance of respect for state sovereignty, non-intervention, and peaceful resolution of disputes.

“This is crucial especially now with the rise of new powers and the relative decline of the old,” President Duterte added.

He vowed to expand Philippine diplomacy with deepened engagement with countries in Latin America, Africa and Central Asia in the last three years of his leadership.

In his speech he said the time has come for the Philippines to look at the Middle East “with fresh eyes going beyond oil and Overseas Filipino Workers.” There is a need for openness to cooperation sans preconditions to address “serious threats from terrorism to climate change, from migration to refugee crisis and from new pandemics to looming shortages of vital resources.”

He called for cooperation to survive and prosper as countries need not choose between sustainable development and environmental protection, promotion of diversity and maintaining national identities and upholding human rights and preserving local social order.

“In this context, our United Nations must step up and reinvigorate global efforts towards creative solutions commensurate to the complexity of our common problems. But it must do so while upholding the principles and ideals that all nations and not only individuals hold dear,” he added.

He concluded his remarks by calling on his audience to expand the notion of “our selves” to include others and choose the enduring power of persuasion over coercion and follow the path of peace in order to achieve share and noble aspirations of everyone.

The Valdai International Discussion Club had “World Order Seen from the East” as its theme and was held at 1389 Polyana Hotel, Valdai Hall in Sochi, Russia.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)