ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのPresident Duterte delivers his intervention in the ASEAN China Special Summit | Nov. 22, 2021

I join my colleagues in thanking China for the excellent arrangements.
Your Majesty, Excellencies, the depth and breadth of the 30-year partnership between ASEAN
and China were achieved by incremental steps marked by significant milestones along the way
such as today.
Certainly, China deserves its status as ASEAN's Comprehensive Strategic Partner.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China was the first Dialogue Partner that ASEAN
engaged. When vaccines were scarce, China was among the first to provide.
I am pleased that cooperative projects on preventing and controlling pandemics, sharing of best
practices and technical assistance are underway.
Together we are making headways in pandemic control, allowing us to re-open our economies
and go full speed with recovery efforts.
Enhanced multilateralism and connectivity will be the drivers of inclusive and comprehensive
recovery. We thus welcome China’s ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement. We also look forward to further strengthening the already robust
ASEAN-China economic relations.
Your Majesty, Excellencies, climate change has rightly risen to the top of our agenda.
Developing coastal states, like the Philippines, contribute the least to global warming but we bear
the brunt of the adverse effects of climate change.
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties or COP26 has just been wrapped up. We
hope that urgent climate action anchored on the principles of justice
and fairness will follow suit.
Our peoples depend on the oceans and seas for livelihood. Let us protect and preserve the
biodiversity and the marine environment through sustained cooperation. This includes support
for the work of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity hosted by the Philippines.
Your Majesty, Excellencies,
We are friends and close neighbors. Our destinies are tied to each other – and geography has
made it irrevocably so.
Allow me then to speak with candor. The South China Sea is a strategic challenge that cannot be
solved by force.
We all want to benefit from the bounties of this vital maritime domain. We agree that peace and
stability are a precondition for this to happen. And we all pledge adherence to the rule of law,
including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Let us then walk our talk and move forward. Acta non verba which means deeds, not words.
Let us exercise utmost [self-]restraint and avoid the escalation of tensions. And most
importantly, let us earnestly work towards the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with
international law.
We abhor the recent event in the Ayungin Shoal and view with grave concern other similar
developments. This does not speak well of the relations between our nations and our partnership.
UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award provide legal clarity for all countries that subscribe to the
majesty of the law. These two landmark documents are beacons pointing us to a just and fair
solution to our disputes.
We must fully utilize these legal tools to ensure that the South China Sea remains a sea of peace,
stability and prosperity.
That is why China must remain committed to the early conclusion of an effective and substantive
Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.
There is simply no other way out of this colossal problem but the rule of law.
Your Majesty, Excellencies, pearls come to mind when we celebrate 30-year anniversaries.
These gems of the sea symbolize wisdom and serenity.
Amidst the shifts and challenges in our region, may we always have the wisdom and serenity to
do the right thing for the common good.
Thank you.