“Aims must change” for the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM)-Plus as a cooperation mechanism, urged Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. during the 12th ADMM-Plus on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur.

The Philippines assumed chairmanship of the ADMM and ADMM-Plus on Saturday.

“The ADMM-Plus is a framework not only for exchanges of views,” Teodoro said, “but also for functional cooperation, even among states with differing interests, and sometimes dichotomic interests.”

He added that it cannot be denied that “times have indeed changed, and I witnessed this from the time we first [approved] the ADMM-Plus, and our successes in the past may not be replicated in the future.”

Even as the Philippines engages in practical cooperation under the ADMM-Plus, Teodoro called out the harassment faced by the country in the West Philippine Sea, calling it as “behavior that flatly and blatantly contradicts the principles enshrined in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation [in Southeast Asia].”

“We must condemn the unilateral declaration of a nature reserve in Scarborough Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc, which denies fisherfolk of various countries the right to fish in what has been legally recognized as their traditional fishing grounds,” he noted. “This, to us, is a veiled attempt to wield military might and the threat for use of force, undermining the rights of smaller countries and their citizens who rely on the bounty of these waters.”

Teodoro acknowledged countries such as India and Vietnam exhibit “sterling approach” in complying with international law in good faith and working together with others “despite, in the true spirit of ASEAN, our differences.”

Attended by defense officials and delegates from ASEAN Member States, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States, the 12th ADMM-Plus also featured the adoption of the “Joint Statement by the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Commemoration of the 15th Anniversary of the Founding of the ADMM-Plus.”

Teodoro reaffirmed that the Philippines will “continue to forge results-oriented partnerships with peace-loving and law-abiding states both in Southeast Asia and beyond.” Department of National Defens