ASEAN maritime security dialogue set in Manila on May 21-23, 2025
Flags of member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) are displayed at a naval base in Batam in the Riau Islands, Indonesia on September 20, 2023. Bay Ismoyo/ AFP
Member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to convene for a maritime security dialogue in Manila from May 21 to 23 to tackle opportunities and obstacles in pushing for a rules-based order in the region.
In a press conference on Tuesday, nonprofit group We Protect our Seas (WPS) president Dr. Jeffrey Ordaniel said the dialogue would involve academics, policy elites, and maritime practitioners.
"Many of you, I think, attended the Manila Dialogue in the South China Sea last year in November. And one of the things we have observed in that dialogue was the prevalence of the 'do not make us choose' narrative or that Southeast Asian states should maintain strategic autonomy on maritime issues," he said.
Ordaniel pointed out that ASEAN countries can discuss steps for rules-based maritime order in the South China Sea without the involvement of the United States and China.
"What we mean by 'do not make us choose?' Because obviously, when we talk about the South China Sea, the Philippine government broadly is interested in advancing a rules-based maritime order," he said.
"But for some reason, that may be interpreted as siding with one power over the other. But what we want to highlight here is that this is a dialogue without great powers without the involvement of China or the United States," he added.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the National Maritime Council (NSC) were tapped as partners for the dialogue.
De La Salle University professor Renato de Castro, for his part, said the dialogue is an opportunity for ASEAN members to express their views on issues.
"One key perspective that all ASEAN member states agree on is the fact that the South China Sea issue should be out of the great power competition," De Castro said.
"The Philippines and, of course, other ASEAN countries when it comes to the South China Sea issue should exercise their agency. The fact that for these littoral states like the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, of course, the issue there is the fact that we're focused on Chinese expansive claims,' he added.
Tensions continue as Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Parts of the South China Sea that fall within Philippine territory have been renamed by the government as West Philippine Sea to reinforce the country's claim.
The West Philippine Sea refers to the maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago including Luzon Sea and the waters around, within and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China's claims in the South China Sea, saying that it had "no legal basis."
China has refused to recognize the decision. — VDV, GMA Integrated News
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