KUALA LUMPUR: (Bernama) The Philippines says Asean must tackle challenges confronting and affecting its peoples amid mounting geopolitical tensions and global uncertainties, without losing sight of the long-term priorities that shape the region’s future.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro said the Philippines, as the current Asean Chair, was approaching its role with clarity and strategic focus, requiring both responsiveness and continuity.
"Asean must be able to immediately address challenges confronting and affecting our peoples, while steadily advancing the long-term priorities that shape the region’s future. This is what we aim and continue to do as Chair,” she said in a written interview with Bernama.
For the Philippines, she said keeping Asean strategically focused means ensuring that every response to a crisis strengthens the regional grouping's collective resilience, reinforces Aseab Centrality, and delivers practical benefits for its peoples.
Citing the 48th Asean Summit and Related Meetings in May as an example, she said leaders focused on the implications of the ongoing West Asia conflict, including disruptions to maritime and air transport routes, threats to energy and food supplies, mounting economic pressures, and the safety of Asean peoples.
The discussions centred on three urgent priorities, namely ensuring regional energy security and resilience, stabilising food security, and protecting Asean nationals, she said.
"These discussions reaffirmed the importance of Asean Centrality, solidarity and practical cooperation in responding to external shocks," she said, adding that Asean emphasised the use and expansion of existing mechanisms and frameworks, whose plans of action usually extend beyond a single chairship.
At the same time, she said Asean had not lost sight of the Philippines’ main chairship priorities - Peace and Security Anchors, Prosperity Corridors, and People Empowerment - with 13 strategic priorities under the LEAD, SAIL, RISE Asean Framework.
"The work of Asean continues at all levels and across all pillars, from political-security cooperation, economic integration, and connectivity, to social protection, climate resilience, and people-centred development," she said.
As regional leadership shifts from Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Lazaro said the Philippines views the Asean chairmanship as a continuum, with each chair building on the work of its predecessor while contributing to the bloc's shared priorities and long-term vision.
She said the Philippines would carry forward Asean's focus on inclusivity and sustainability while beginning the implementation of Asean 2045: Our Shared Future, the regional bloc's roadmap for the next two decades, and continuing Asean Community-building efforts, including supporting Timor-Leste's integration into the bloc.
She said the Philippines aimed to translate its chairship theme, "Navigating Our Future, Together", into practical and people-centred cooperation amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty and emerging regional challenges.
"The theme is not simply a catchy phrase, but a mandate that we must pursue for our peoples,” she said. - Bernama
