Philippine Defense Secretary Teodoro Holds Press Conference Following ASEAN Defense Meeting

Good afternoon to our friends in media. Of course, good afternoon to our Department of National Defense team led by Undersecretary, Senior Undersecretary, Reneo Espino. Today, I propose to give you a briefing of what occurred in both the ADMM and the ADMM+. Plus, a recap of some of the outcomes and the activities which occurred throughout the year we stewarded. In order to adequately reflect the positions of ASEAN, all ADMM and ADMM Plus related questions, we just request that you wait for the reports of the working groups because they will contain accurate information regarding what has occurred. And if you still have clarificatory questions, please address them to the department for an accurate answer or the ASEAN Secretariat. So in the ADMM yesterday, which was attended by all the ADMM member countries, we adopted five new initiatives. These include, principally, promoting exchanges among our younger and upcoming defense leaders and military leaders, strengthening our individual and collective resilience against chemical, biological, and radiological threats. We also have an effort to enhance the synergy between the ADMM Plus and the ASEAN Regional Forum. These are two bodies that deal with security, and so we are attempting to harmonize the themes taken up in both. We also came out with a comprehensive guide to ADMM and ADMM Plus practices and protocols, both of which support the continued evolution of the regional security architecture. Fifth and last, we look forward, the Philippines looks forward to co-hosting with our strategic partner, India, the Maritime Security Resilience Amidst Emerging Technologies Conference in 2027, next year. In addition to these five new initiatives, we adopted the Joint Statement commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, the TAC. We request that copies of the Joint Statement be made available to media, and most of your questions, the reference will be the text itself. And we adopted the Manila Joint Declaration on the 20th anniversary of the ADMM, navigating our future together. So the ADMM has been in existence for 20 years. And we have admitted partner countries, dialogue partners, rather, and observers a few years back. And for 20 years, it has grown. and the sub-activities and the working groups under the ASEAN and ADMM have likewise progressed. So the documents, these two joint declarations, they outline a desired way forward, reaffirms the collective commitment to upholding the principles that ASEAN shares, enhance our cooperation and solidarity in the days ahead. So that was for the ADMM. Today, during the ADMM+, we held an exchange of views on regional and international security issues between ASEAN member countries and dialogue partner countries. We look forward to culminating activities of the current cycle of experts working groups and welcome new co-chairs of the EWGs for 2027 to 2030. The current composition of the experts working groups shall be made available to media and those that have been approved for the next cycle shall also be made available. Finally, we adopted the joint statement on the ADMM Plus on youth security and peace. It is complementary to the youth leaders development program where younger upcoming defense and military leaders, not only regionally but with dialogue partners, shall be given priority so that the transitioning from generation to generation of military leadership in this context smooth and smooth. seamless as possible. Apart from the ADMM and ADMM+, the Philippines also chaired the ASEAN Plus One Defense Minister's informal meeting yesterday with Secretary Pete Hegseth of the United States and Minister Koizumi Shinjiro of Japan, respectively. These discussions were open, candid, frank, and were very productive with ASEAN members requesting both Japan and the United States for greater and more robust engagement in the ASEAN region. On the sidelines, I held bilateral meetings with my counterparts from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Vietnam, and India. We also held a squad ministerial meeting yesterday afternoon where we affirmed the collective desire of the Philippines, Australia, Japan, and the United States to enhance our bilateral and four-way cooperation towards a safer and more prosperous Indo-Pacific. Our day has not yet ended. There will be some activities by myself and the others until the culminating event tonight, where we hope to showcase to the rest of ASEAN and dialogue partners the best of the Philippines. We are here not only to promote our defense dialogue or to support our defense dialogue, but also as an inclusive activity to showcase the Central Philippines, particularly the province of Cebu, the city of Cebu, and the city of Lapu-Lapu, where it can be a convention and vacation destination place. Tomorrow, I shall resume my normal schedule, which shall be a full day for me, visiting our military contingents in the Viscom area of operations. Those summarize the key outcomes and takeaways that we had from the ADMM, ADMM Plus, and other engagements this week. Notable to mention, too, is that you will find in the ADSOM and ADSOM Plus senior leaders' reports the sort of detailed work that is being done. For example, the network of ASEAN defense and security institutions, work on cyber threats and artificial intelligence in defense. And third, the future of warfare. There also was taken up by the working groups, the ASEAN military's two-year activity work plan, together with a joint statement on securing our future together. Under these are intelligence community leaders conference, military operations meeting, military intelligence meeting. Also reported were the other activities conducted, for example, the 13th ASEAN Chief of Military Medicine Conference, the 20th ASEAN Navy Chiefs Meeting, the Air Chiefs Conference of ASEAN, and the upcoming Chiefs of the Army Multilateral Meeting. Furthermore, there were two activities that were actually undertaken this year. Number one was the conduct of Exercise Trident Resolve, which is the first ever field training exercise conducted among three expert working groups, namely on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military medicine, and cyber security. We have also resumed at-sea activities under the Experts Working Group on Maritime Security with the joint cooperative activity which was done in Subic in September last month. So these are some of the activities, and mind you that the conference, the ADMM, ADMM Plus, is held once a year, but under this framework, a lot of activities occur down the line, not only in the department levels or the ministry levels, but down the line to our armed forces and other important stakeholders. At this point, let me thank most sincerely the whole DND and Armed Forces family for working tirelessly in bringing this conference to a successful conclusion. A few hours more, perhaps. We also congratulate Assistant Secretary Marita Lloro being one of the two awardees, 20-year awardee, who has been with us since the inception of the ADMM 20 years ago. The first ADMM I attended was 19 years ago, the second one in 20 them. We also would like to thank all those who assisted us in this conference, the National Organizing Committee of ASEAN, our AFP contingent under the auspices of the Visayan Command, the Defense Intelligence and Security Group, and other units like the Philippine Air Force. They were on standby. We would also like to thank, and thank sincerely, the members of the Regional Office, Region 7 of the Philippine National Police, Regional Office 7. They have been very efficient, they have worked very hard even months ago to ensure that this conference occurred without snags, rather. I would like also to thank the province of Cebu, the city of Cebu, and the city of Lapu-Lapu for showing the best of what the Philippines has to offer to the whole world right here in Cebu province, Cebu city, and Lapu-Lapu. We hope that this will not be the last major conference held here, and I'll take this opportunity to invite all our defense partners and other partners to take advantage of the facilities in Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City. If you don't have anyone, this will not happen. Lastly, I would like to thank His Excellency the President, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, his unyielding and unstinting support for this conference, not only for the conference itself, but for steadily backing us up, giving us clear guidance in our positions both externally and internally, which enables us to uphold the dignity of the Republic of the Philippines in a defense sense in every engagement that we have with our counterparts throughout the world. Thank you very much once again. Magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat, mabuhay. Yung mga bisita mo na nga, non-ASEAN ADMM related questions, if there are any. Are there any, yes, Patrick? Kasi rapido ito, sunod-sunod eh. Please state your name and your publication or outlet. Michael Flores of Reuters. Sir, non-ASEAN, okay lang? Non-ASEAN? But also related to ASEAN, because the Chinese Defense Ministry just put out a statement this afternoon saying that it sent its defense attaché because the Philippines' action seriously undermined the spirit of ASEAN and it undermined China's legitimate rights as a member of the dialogue. Well, insofar as ASEAN is concerned, I do not believe our ASEAN member countries feel that way. If not, they would have let me know. So it is China's position. It is not ASEAN's position. Anyway, they were given an opportunity to articulate their position, which is not any different from what they have been articulating before. So that is how I shall answer the question. No country has the right to characterize ASEAN processes except ASEAN member countries. They are dialogue partners. So as much as we would want to accommodate them, it is subject to rules and limitations. The important fact is they were able to articulate their position on regional and maritime securities with a little additions. additions nonetheless we we allowed the exchange of views to be robust and i think that was the important thing, the opportunity to be heard, how they are going to be heard is for ASEAN proper to determine and not anybody else. Thank you, thank you ma'am, yes, doctor sir Sir, this is Celerina Monte from NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Yes, I know you. Thank you, sir. Sir, during the ADMM-Plus this morning, even if you have already mentioned that the Chinese representative was able to articulate the position, could you specifically say what he said this morning, what was his intervention, and what was the reaction of the other ASEAN members and also you? Well, I would just say this. They were able to state their position on the security situation regionally and internationally. It's not any different from what you hear their ministries saying. Now, the reactions, I will expect that the interventions of the different ministers who participated would be released by their own media outlets. I wouldn't want to characterize the reactions, but I'm quite happy and satisfied with the – if there was any reaction. So, sir, he specifically mentioned about the South China Sea? I don't, yes, which also the Philippines have mentioned naturally as a matter of course. So it's not any different from what you would have come to expect their messaging to be. Any other questions? Good afternoon, sir. Annie Perez from ABS-CBN. Is there any particular reason that it was not you who received the defense attaché of China? Well, there should be some parity in rank and in stature. So I think an undersecretary receiving an attaché, that is already more than courteous. Yes, I'm giving you the opportunity. So, sir, with the hosting of ADMM and ADMM+, what do you think is the most significant achievement that the Philippines, being the chair, has achieved insofar as the maritime security issue is concerned? Well, you know, we don't have quick wins in ASEAN. It is a process of engaging because it is a consensus-based organization. The mere fact that we had the first joint cooperative activity is already progress enough in Subic with a dialogue partner at that, the participation of dialogue partners. So I think what is also significant is that defense leaders realize that security threats are becoming more unpredictable and they do not come confined to specific boxes, specific disciplines, or specific areas of traditional military and defense thinking. So I think there is unanimous consensus that ASEAN defense ministers meet and the Plus must be more proactive in engaging and hopefully more participative in engaging in the number of fields or topics that we discuss, we study together. Nonetheless, this is also subject to the logistical limitations of each and every defense ministry or defense department. So, given the fact that two exercises were already done on the ground and on the sea, that is significant progress for 20 years. where there is, has been, of course, a divergence, you know, we view phenomena different ways. That is progress. However, we realize that's why there's a youth immersion program for emerging defense leaders that the norm today in terms of agility and speed is not good enough. And so we have to integrate in the regional architecture. Security architecture are younger and emerging leaders, both in the defense establishments and in the military. Yes, please. The gentleman in the back. Yes. Thank you. I'm Jin Jiarui from Shanghai Media Group. Actually, you have always said that the Philippines is committed to promoting the regional peace under the ASEAN's principle of free, peace, and neutral. But we have seen that the Philippines have done some action, such as like introducing the squad into the ASEAN setting, such as hosting the Typhoon missiles. Those actions have brought some concerns. I will read some of them. Like CSIS on the Southeast Asia has said that leaning too much on such external alignments will cause a gap between diplomatic rhetoric and strategic reality. And some reports from Singapore's ICAS show over half of regional policy elites are deeply concerned about the erosion, as you have said, of the regional security architecture. So how will you respond to these kinds of concerns, and how will you convince your regional partners that all the things you have done are just genuinely for peace? Thank you so much. All right. Thank you for your question. First and foremost, if at all our regional partners, particularly ASEAN member states, have had concerns on Philippine activities, they would have made it known and known publicly. To date, there is no such contrary opinion. Secondly, the defense buildup of the Philippines is an internal question for the Philippines. And since the Philippines is committed to its own defense buildup, and we conform strictly as proven by the undebatable force and effect legally in terms of principle and content of the 2016 Arbitral Award, from which the practice of engaging in these legal processes, We followed our ASEAN brethren, Malaysia and Singapore, and even extra-regional partners, for example, India and Bangladesh. India is a much bigger country. They did not win the arbitration, yet they complied. So the Philippines has proven in actions and not words its commitment to peace and security, Yet, we cannot deny the unilateral and illegal claims made by China on its Philippines maritime domain. And if other ASEAN countries were subjected to the same kind of action in the magnitude the Philippines is experiencing, I am sure that they would resist this to the best of their ability, and likewise, the Philippines would not fault them for it. So, let's talk about the facts on the ground, which is backed up by transparency and backed up by legal doctrines derived from an international process that is mandatory on all unclosed signatory countries, which we followed to the letter, and which China participated in ab initio and then backed out. We are backed up by that. Our track record speaks for itself. Our defense resilience, whether with ASEAN or with our treaty partners and like-minded partners, is a fundamental right of the Republic of the Philippines, which is the same situation with other ASEAN countries. The Philippine defense position as regards ASEAN is that intra-ASEAN unity and solidarity is the prime goal of the ADMM. While for our external security, of which ASEAN is an integral component, the Philippines, given its location as not only an ASEAN country but as a Pacific Island country, by heritage and by location, should leverage all its defense relations in the face of a severe threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty. thank you I'm afraid that's all the time we have for now that's that's all the time I have so other questions will be accommodated by assistant secretary and the law no they for accuracy we will not answer them today but we'll give you a response as soon as possible uh forgive us for the abbreviated briefing because we still have certain duties to attend to i still have meetings and we still have to prepare for this evening's occasion thank you everyone once again i reiterate please wait for the official documents papers most of your answers your most of your questions can be answered with a reference to those documents thank you