President Rodrigo Roa Duterte led the country’s hosting of the 12th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Manila on Tuesday, November 14.
“The main topics of our meeting today among others include the review and future direction of the EAS, cooperation exchange of views on regional and international issues,” President Duterte said in his opening remarks prior to the formal summit meeting.
Duterte enumerated some of the topics he said should be discussed in the summit including “complex challenges” ASEAN and the Asia Pacific region are confronting.
“Technological developments and a more open economic region have resulted in our societies becoming more interconnected. So to however, our problems become intertwined,” he said.
“The effects of migration, environmental degradation and armed conflict in one location can have repercussions across the world. The impact of climate change is being felt almost accurately by the marginalized in our societies who are at least able to cope,” he added.
“We have also been made painfully aware that terrorism knows no borders and that violent extremists are becoming more adept at exploiting power vacuums, instability and discontent to spread their narrative hatred and destruction,” he further said.
He noted that the East Asia Summit with ASEAN at the helm is a mechanism by which strategic dialogues in the evolving regional security architecture takes place.
“Cooperation established at the highest level will impact our pursuit of maintaining peace, security and prosperity of our regions,” he said.
The President, meanwhile, welcomed South Korean President Moon Jae-in and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for attending the summit for the first time as leaders of their respective countries.
The East Asia Summit is composed of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam; and eight dialogue partners from the Asia Pacific region such as Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, United States and Russia. PND
