“I cannot see the Philippines in the future without having the United States as a partner,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared before potential American investors last Tuesday in New York City.
Mr. Marcos Jr.’s remark is by far his clearest affirmation yet he is advocating for stronger ties with the United States.
“I believe that the political, economic, diplomatic relations that we make, the partnerships that we forged and that we strengthen now are going to be extremely necessary for the simple reason that they provide stability in this highly unstable economic, political, geopolitical, and diplomatic environment,” he explained his stand.
Notwithstanding his stance, speaking a day later during the 77th UN General Assembly, he said the country will retain its “friendly” foreign policy and said disputes should be resolved peacefully.
“By reinforcing the predictability and stability of international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, we provided an example of how states should resolve their differences: Through reason and through right,” he said.
Without detailing specifics, Mr. Marcos Jr. obviously is referencing the country’s dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea and the arbitration case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which the country won.
Foreign policy experts, as well as the foreign governments Mr. Marcos Jr. is addressing, would have no trouble getting the messages he wants to put across.
But if you haven’t the faintest idea what Mr. Marcos Jr.’s goings about mean, best to see it as him shaking and blowing off the dust on some of the country’s decade-old strategic foreign policy scripts on the contentious WPS issue.
Take, for instance, his stand on further reinforcing the country’s strong bilateral relationships with the US.
Reinvigorating the US-Philippine alliance is all about furthering a stronger external defense infrastructure than at present.
That means the US security umbrella (aka military firepower) for Mr. Marcos Jr. is more than ever crucial for defending our territorial integrity and sovereignty if matters go haywire at the WPS.
Mr. Marcos Jr.’s plea for rules-based UNCLOS, meanwhile, is about engaging the international community on valid international concerns, like respect for the freedom of navigation and commerce, protecting the global commons or marine environment, and peaceful settlement of disputes.
At the same time, by internationalizing the country’s WPS problems before a forum like the UN, he reiterates the country’s interim solution of protecting itself by garnering sympathy from more partners and allies.
And, when he mentions the country as an example of how states should resolve differences, he is obviously talking about our country’s arbitration victory even if he avoided any mention of The Hague ruling.
If nothing else, our arbitral victory legally clarified what countries had maritime entitlements in the WPS. Meaning the ruling made clear what rocks, reefs, and whatever features in the seas we are claiming did really belong to us and nobody else’s, including those being claimed by China.
As we all know by now, hegemonic China doesn’t want to recognize the arbitration case even if the previous administration tried the “strategy of putting the ruling on the shelf and trying to work closely with China.”
If it strikes you Mr. Marcos’ tone is vastly different from his predecessor’s experimental strategic subservience toward Beijing, you are right.
His predecessor, who despite affirming the Philippines’ ties with the US in official statements, several times had lambasted Washington.
Officials of the previous administration claimed the bombast was merely about the need to maintain an independent foreign policy and to boost ties with non-traditional allies like China.
In the end, however, both the country and China failed to secure any major diplomatic and economic breakthroughs despite the long bout of warm relations.
Anyway, all these strategic state level policies Mr. Marcos is renewing and navigating with the US alliance, calling international attention on the country’s WPS problems, and the arbitration case reflects our continuing struggle to solve the puzzle on what we can practically do insofar as solving our security predicament when two great powers are competing for hegemony in our part of the world.
Sustaining the momentum in solving that puzzle is now Mr. Marcos Jr.’s daunting challenge, not least because a long-term solution to the WPS dispute is still not forthcoming.
Email: nevqjr@yahoo.com.ph