Marcos Jr tells Australia ‘no single country’ can protect the Indo-Pacific

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has warned that peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific is under threat, but stopped just short of naming China as the top threat to peace in the region.

In a historic address to both houses of parliament – and in an unusually direct speech for the leader of a major Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) player – Marcos said the region’s security and prosperity depended on countries working together to counter “the common challenges confronting the region. No one single country can do this by itself.”

Anthony Albanese and Ferdinand Marcos Jr in Parliament House on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The president said Australia’s destiny was irrevocably linked to that of Asia and that “over the years you have held true to this tenet. You have become a valuable member of Asia and of the Indo-Pacific.”

The comment echoes that of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who in the 1990s described Australia as a US outpost but who by 2019 argued Australia’s future lay in Asia.

Ahead of the ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne next week, Marcos also highlighted the threat climate change posed to both his own country and the entire region, and said that developed countries such as Australia must do more to combat the warming of the planet.

Marcos was elected president in 2022 and is widely known by his nickname “Bongbong”. He is the son of former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, who ruled the country from 1965 to 1986 and whose wife, Imelda, was famous for owning several thousand pairs of shoes.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr addresses a joint sitting of parliament on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Marcos Jr told parliament: “I will not allow any attempt by any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory.”

“For the Philippines, Australia plays a crucial role as one of only two partners with which the Philippines has a visiting forces agreement,” he said, highlighting a Filipino-US-Australian joint exercise that involved 560 Filipino soldiers, 1200 Australian service personnel and 120 US marines.

“The protection of the South China Sea, a critical global artery, is crucial to the preservation of regional peace and, I dare say, of global peace. We have an abiding interest in keeping our seas free and open and in ensuring unimpeded passage and freedom of navigation.”

China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea as its own but is in dispute with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Indonesia over these claims.

China frowns on so-called freedom of navigation operations undertaken by the United States, Australia and other nations in the air and on the water in the South China Sea and has regularly flown or sailed aggressively close to other nations’ vessels.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled China had no claim to large swaths of the South China Sea, but Beijing ignored the ruling and built a series of military bases, including on outcrops such as the Scarborough Shoal and the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, which are close to the Philippines’ main islands.

The two navies and coastguard services clash frequently over disputed territory.

Unlike his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who was friendlier to China and whose war on drugs led to credible accusations that thousands of people were murdered in extra-judicial killings, Marcos has re-positioned the Philippines within the United States’ sphere of influence in South-East Asia.

Albanese praised the Philippines as one of Australia’s key partners in the region and said “we share a vision for an open, stable and prosperous region”.

“Our nations have never been closer, and realising opportunities through our strategic partnership will bring great benefits to Australians and Filipinos,” Albanese said.

The two leaders signed new memoranda of understanding enhancing co-operation on maritime, cyber and critical technology.

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