SWITZERLAND, with its long history of neutrality in global politics, has become the apt venue of a recent speech by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that centers on diplomacy and geopolitics.
In his remarks at a dinner in Zurich hosted for the President and Filipino business leaders by the economic team, Marcos Jr. called on Asia-Pacific countries to start charting their own destiny far from the intense geopolitical rivalry in the region. The President is in Switzerland for the 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF).
In his speech, President Marcos said Asia-Pacific countries face pressure to take sides due to intense geopolitical tension in the region. However, he said, the region should not embrace the Cold War mentality which dictates that they must choose sides.
‘Public appearances and pronouncements such as this one in Zurich show Bongbong Marcos’ propensity to reprise his father…’
The Cold War forced countries to choose whether to be under the sphere of influence of either the Soviet Union or the United States. Since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a communist state then, and the US was a democracy, for lesser countries the dilemma had become a black-and-white choice between communism and democracy.
Speaking for the ASEAN region, Marcos said, “We are determined as a group in ASEAN and in the Indo-Pacific, those around the Indo-Pacific, despite all of this conflict, we are determined to stay away from that.”
“Because we are anchored in the idea that the future of the Indo-Pacific, the future of Asia-Pacific, cannot be determined by anyone but the countries of the Asia-Pacific. That removes us immediately from that idea that you must choose; we choose our friends, we choose our neighbors, that’s the choice that we will make,” he added.
The Chief Executive noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict are bumps in the road that remind the Philippines that it has only itself to depend on for survival.
“We have to strengthen our own local economy to be able to withstand shocks. There is a tendency of protectionism in that because we take care first of our own businesses, we take care first of our own industries, we take care first of our own economy,” Marcos stressed.
The Filipino leader made a case for globalization, or the strengthening of whatever is left of it, in the face of the massive disruption of the global supply chain and other economic problems left by the pandemic.
“I think the tendency after things have settled, after countries such as the Philippines, have put in place the elements of policy, the elements of legislation that are necessary to be able to adjust to what is the new coming economy, once that is in place, I think that the globalization will start – we will start to return to the tendency of globalization. I think it is inevitable,” Marcos said.
Public appearances and pronouncements such as this one in Zurich show Bongbong Marcos’ propensity to reprise his father, who projected the image of a strong leader in the international stage. Will he succeed or fail? The rest of his presidential term will show.
