Deeper PH-Australia defense ties 'not about China' -- Marles

Welcoming the “expanding relationship” that the Philippines has with other countries, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles said that the Philippines’ recent moves to strengthen defense and bilateral ties with its neighbors “is not really in my mind about China.”

- By RAYMUND ANTONIO

In a recent interview on Newswatch, the visiting Australian official explained that there was a commonality among the countries that the Philippines has recently established or strengthened its relationships with.

“As you go through that list of countries, what they have in common is wanting to see, or be in a world governed by rules and the countries that seek to assert the global rules-based order,” he said.

“I think in respect of China, this is not really in my mind about China. What this is about is building that world which I've described which is based on rules and it is about countries which believe in having a rules-based order, working together to try and assert that rules-based order, understanding that it is an order which is currently under pressure,” he added.