MANILA (Reuters) – A security grouping in Southeast Asia similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is not possible at present given diverging interests and alliances in the region, the Philippines’ Defense Secretary said on Tuesday.
Asked about the prospect of a NATO equivalent in Southeast Asia, Gilberto Teodoro told a security forum that ASEAN’s complex “dichotomies and divergence in country interests” would make it challenging to set up a unified military alliance.”For example, we have a pre-ASEAN defense alliance with the United States. We continue to build alliances with like-minded countries,” he said in a security forum in Manila.
“Other ASEAN countries have built alliances with China.”
The remarks come after Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, prior to taking office, had floated the idea of establishing an “Asian NATO”, a proposal that has gained no traction and was rejected by the United States and India.
Japan’s foreign minister later said such an idea was not aimed at countering a specific country, when asked if it had China in mind. Teodoro said he would rather ASEAN recognised that China was “overstepping” in the South China Sea. There have been recent clashes over territorial claims with the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
China and U.S. ally the Philippines have been at loggerheads over a series of confrontations near disputed areas in the South China Sea. Manila has accused China’s coast guard of aggression and Beijing has said it is responding to what it calls repeated provocations and territorial incursions.
“Getting some principles or some reactions regarding the expansive activities and admittedly illegal activities of China in the South China Sea is a very good first step, and that’s what we should be working on,” Teodoro said.
The Philippines has called on Southeast Asian leaders and China to urgently speed up negotiations on a code of conduct for the South China Sea, to manage differences and reduce tension.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis, siding with the Philippines which brought the case. Beijing has rejected the ruling.
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty and John Mair)
