Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Honorable Antony Blinken, welcome,

Your Majesty and Excellencies,

At the outset, Mr. Blinken, please accept the Philippines’ condolences for the loss of lives and livelihoods in the United States caused by the terrible devastation brought by Hurricane Milton.

The Philippines and our region more than most, understand the impacts of natural disasters.

We extend our sympathies for the losses which, in reality, can never be sufficiently measured.

The regional security and prosperity of ASEAN is bolstered by the continued support of ASEAN’s partners. We, in ASEAN, therefore, appreciate the reliable and active presence of the United States in the region as a force for peace, stability, and security in the Indo-Pacific. We equally value the consistent support of the United States for ASEAN Centrality in the evolving regional architecture.

We welcome initiatives by the U.S. to provide a platform and opportunities to exchange views on a diverse range of issues, including topics on emerging technologies, energy transition and climate change, and maritime security, including through the Institute for Rising Leaders (IRL) Fellowship.

We encourage the continued implementation of the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-United States (U.S.) Strategic Partnership (2021-2025) and its Annex which covers all ASEAN Community Pillars, and we wish to congratulate our officials for the virtually complete implementation of that Plan.

On trade, we also note with optimism the adoption of the 2024-2025 ASEAN-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement and Expanded Economic Engagement Initiatives Work Plan. We are pleased to see the U.S. interest to cooperate on competition and consumer protection, as these are important areas as we jointly promote digital trade.

Amongst the emerging technologies, we now look to the adoption of the ASEAN-U.S. Summit Leaders’ Statement on Promoting Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.

This highlights the importance of AI governance and interoperability between governance frameworks through further cooperation to support the completion of a meaningful and substantive ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) that advances an open, secure, interoperable, competitive, and inclusive digital economy.

On climate change and the environment, the Philippines welcomes the first ASEAN-U.S. Ministerial Dialogue on Environment and Climate Change which we are confident will support climate action and biodiversity conservation.

We likewise look forward to the upcoming support of the United States to the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity for enhancing the management of ASEAN Heritage Parks and other priority protected areas in the region, through the U.S. Department of the Interior.

On health cooperation, we certainly appreciate the U.S.’ continued support for a number of critical health areas. These include infection prevention and control, public health emergency management, regional laboratory diagnostics, and pharmaceutical regulation.

And finally, we welcome the launching of the ASEAN-U.S. Center at the Arizona State University to further institutionalize, widen, and deepen the engagements, while propelling support for U.S. economic and cultural engagements with ASEAN.

We also look forward to future people-oriented and people-centered initiatives, such as the ASEAN Youth Volunteers Programme, the Fulbright ASEAN-U.S. Visiting Scholar Programme, the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), and the ASEAN-U.S. Institute for Rising Leaders Fellowship, among others.

Please be assured of the Philippines’ continued support for projects advancing our common interest in the collective peace, stability, and prosperity of our region.

Thank you.

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