Marcos urges assertive global action amid tensions in Indo-Pacific region

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Wednesday called on like-minded nations to take a stronger, more assertive role in defending the rules-based international order, warning that rising global tensions and the erosion of multilateral norms are endangering the post-World War II system.

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Speaking at the Observer Research Foundation’s Indo-Pacific Oration in New Delhi, Mr. Marcos said traditional powers are becoming increasingly inward-looking, creating space for provocations that threaten global stability — particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

“There are those who sometimes justify such provocations under the pretext of geopolitics,” Mr. Marcos said, according to an official transcript released by Malacañang.

He took particular aim at how the international community has treated disputes in the South China Sea, where the Philippines has maritime tensions with China.

“The complex issue of competing claims in the South China Sea has, for years, been unfortunately and simplistically reduced to ‘the South China Sea disputes,’ as if claims were all equal. They are not,” he said.

Mr. Marcos cited the importance of international law, citing the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 arbitral ruling that rejected China’s expansive claims in the disputed waterway.

He reiterated Manila’s commitment to upholding these legal frameworks and urged other nations to do the same.