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In a blistering press conference along with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne during Australia-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special summit, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pushed back against criticism that has been levied on Malaysia and regional countries for giving “additional focus” to Beijing, calling it as a “China-phobia” in the West.
“We are (an) independent nation, we are fiercely independent. We do not want to be dictated by any force. So, once we remain to be an important friend to the United States or Europe and here in Australia, they should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbors, precisely China,” Anwar responded to a question that was seen as resistance to the US pressure in the world media.
His remarks – just days after the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his speech to the Australian Parliament attempted to undermine regional peace and prosperity by calling upon Canberra and others to join forces in the face of alleged threats to the rule of law, peace and stability – represented ASEAN policy of safeguarding and promoting regional peace, security and stability; peacefully resolve all disputes through dialogue and fostering economic growth.
Relations between Beijing and Manila have been relatively stable under the former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte. But Marcos’ rabble-rousing stance and Manila’s provocative actions, military drills with America and Australia in the South China Sea (SCS), explicit intent to gang up alliances in support of the US-led efforts to stoke tensions in the strategic waterways threaten to challenge the long-established status quo that has helped to uphold peace and encouraged economic cooperation across Asia-Pacific.
Most ASEAN states want to maintain good relations with Beijing and Washington without taking sides; Manila under Marcos has become more assertive in the SCS at the behest of the US, which seeks to cement alliances in Asia-Pacific and needs its former colony to stem the rise of China let it be at the cost of ASEAN's peace and prosperity.
Marcos, on the other hand, is not only using Philippines' partnerships with the US and allies to expand Manila's influence in the SCS but he also has been endeavoring to divide the ASEAN. Last November, he approached Malaysia and Vietnam to craft a separate Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS even as China and ASEAN in July had agreed on guidelines and leaders at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in September had welcomed the progress achieved on the COC negotiations, snubbing ASEAN chair Indonesia's President Jokowi Widodo advice at the 18th East Asia Summit to all to lower the tension, refrain from creating new conflicts and create space for dialogue.
The Philippines' effort would meet with ambivalence since it attempts to pull apart the ASEAN unity and also because most Southeast Asian countries have historically maintained a pacifist approach toward Beijing, stressing on a diplomatic solution to the territorial disputes and prioritizing economic growth through cooperation with the world’s second largest economy.
Addressing the Lowy Institute, Macros sought a “conducive environment” for the success of the COC negotiations, highlighting the so-called threats to Manila’s sovereignty. His Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo urged regional nations to stand firmly together in opposing actions that were inconsistent with international law.
While developing a consensus on the final document, as Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien said at the summit, may take some time due to complexity of the issues, China is willing to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the SCS and accelerate the COC negotiations, striving to reach a regional norm that is in line with the international law and will bring durable peace in the region.
The Philippines, meanwhile, is moving in sync with the US jarring grand strategy by playing up the China threat. Since assuming office, Marcos has almost doubled the number of its bases accessible to the US forces with military exercises extending to joint air and sea patrols over the SCS and close to Taiwan. These actions as well as Manila’s plan to upgrade its SCS outposts in addition to provoking Beijing threaten ASEAN’s goal of ensuring regional peace and pushing its growth.
Once Albanese and Marcos witnessed the signing of a several memoranda of understanding on areas including defense and maritime, the Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced millions of dollars in funding for the bloc’s maritime security citing “unsafe conduct at sea and in the air” yet deliberately ignored Canberra-Manila sea and air maneuvers across the territory. This stirred controversy in the middle of the summit as former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating slammed the "mindless pro-American" approach, citing Malaysia's rejection of "buying" the US "hegemony" in the region.
For regional countries, maritime cooperative activity between the armed forces of Australia and the Philippines involving navy vessels and frigates and air and maritime surveillance aircraft could be alarming. Canberra is a member of the trilateral AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) military alliance, which Indonesia and Malaysia see as an effort to start a nuclear arms race in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific.
As Australia and the Philippines feature as major treaty allies in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy that aspires to “explore opportunities for the Quad to work with ASEAN” to trigger tensions in the region in the name of Free and Open Indo-Pacific and freedom of navigation, it naturally becomes a collective responsibility of all the countries in the region to increase engagement to protect the regional stability.
Southeast Asia, the world’s “economic dark horse,” has a vast economic potential especially with its vibrant and increasingly tech-savvy young population and a combined gross domestic product of $3.3 trillion as of 2021. Given several ASEAN states including Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have acceded to the China-led community of a shared future and bilateral trade continues to demonstrate a robust growth, both Washington and allies are struggling to align the regional countries on the threat perception from China and ASEAN remains very careful of walking into the US trap.
*My article (unedited) that first appeared in the China Daily: