World News

TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has ordered the swift implementation of measures to give consumers relief from inflated food prices, including an unprecedented release of stockpiled rice to bring down costs, a minister said on Tuesday.

At a news conference, Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa said Mr. Ishiba had instructed the cabinet to proceed quickly with countermeasures as the prices of rice, vegetables and other living costs have soared in recent months.

“Citizens are suffering greatly and feeling pain,” he said, noting that the elevated price of rice had been unexpected.

The average transaction price of rice produced last year jumped 55% to 23,715 yen ($153) per 60 kg (132 lb) from the previous year, according to government data.

The agriculture ministry last week agreed on a new policy that would allow the government to sell stockpiled rice to farm cooperatives on the condition that the buyers would sell back the equivalent amount to the government within a year. It would be the first time stockpiled rice has been released to bring down prices.

Details such as the sale price and timing are yet to be decided, a ministry official said on Tuesday.

Japanese consumer prices rose 3.6% in December from the previous year, marking the biggest jump in almost two years, while the share of households’ spending on food hit a four-decade high last year. – Reuters

SEOUL – South Korea’s Constitutional Court will begin on Monday reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol over his Dec. 3 martial law attempt, while investigators said they plan to question him this week.

All six current justices of the court will attend the first meeting over the impeachment, which the opposition-led parliament passed on Saturday. The court has up to six months to decide whether to remove Mr. Yoon from office or to reinstate him.

Justice Kim Hyung-du said the Constitutional Court will discuss procedures and how to conduct arguments.

In 2017, the court began oral arguments about three weeks after parliament voted to impeach then-President Park Geun-hye over abusing the powers of her office, and took three months to issue a ruling to strip her presidency.

Mr. Yoon and a number of senior officials face potential charges of insurrection, for the short-lived martial law.

A joint team of investigators from the police, the defence ministry and an anti-corruption agency are planning to call Mr. Yoon in for questioning at 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Wednesday, a police official told Reuters.

On Sunday Mr. Yoon did not appear in response to a summons for questioning by a separate investigation by the prosecutors’ office, Yonhap news reported. Yoon cited he was still forming a legal team for his defence as the reason, it said.

The government led by acting president, Han Duck-soo, was moving quickly to reassure international partners and calm financial markets, while the main opposition party pledged to cooperate in efforts to stabilise the situation.

Early on Monday, the finance minister, Bank of Korea governor and top financial regulators met and pledged around-the-clock monitoring of financial and foreign exchange markets.

The benchmark KOSPI index .KS11 rose for a fifth straight session on Monday and traded at its highest levels in more than two weeks, as authorities vowed to stabilise financial markets and analysts noted eased political uncertainty.

Mr. Yoon’s surprise martial law declaration and the ensuing political crisis spooked markets and South Korea’s diplomatic partners, worried over the country’s ability to deter nuclear-armed North Korea.

In one of his first moves as acting president, Han spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden by telephone on Sunday, pledging unwavering commitment to pursue foreign and security policies based on the alliance between the two countries.

Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung welcomed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of his former intelligence chief to handle special missions including North Korea as a sign of commitment for dialogue to ease tensions.

The Saturday impeachment vote passed with at least 12 members of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party joining in favour, which has thrown the party into a disarray with its leader Han Dong-hoon announcing his resignation on Monday.

Mr. Han had publicly backed Yoon’s impeachment as the only way to restore order in the country and clashed with some members who continued to oppose the move. – Reuters

SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday he would lift a surprise martial law declaration he had imposed just hours before, backing down in a standoff with parliament which roundly rejected his attempt to ban political activity and censor the media.

In South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades, Yoon shocked the nation and declared martial law on Tuesday night to thwart “anti-state forces” among his domestic political opponents. But outraged lawmakers unanimously rejected the decree. Yonhap news agency said the cabinet had agreed early on Wednesday to scrap the martial law.

Protesters outside the National Assembly parliament shouted and clapped. “We won!” they chanted, and one demonstrator banged on a drum.

The main opposition Democratic Party called for Yoon, who has been in office since 2022, to resign or face impeachment.

“Even if martial law is lifted, he cannot avoid treason charges. It was clearly revealed to the entire nation that President Yoon could no longer run the country normally. He should step down,” senior DP member of parliament Park Chan-dae said in a statement.

“South Korea as a nation dodged a bullet, but President Yoon may have shot himself in the foot,” said Danny Russel, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute think tank in the United States.

The South Korean won currency came off a more than two-year low against the dollar after Yoon’s reversal, while exchange traded funds linked to South Korean stocks similarly cut losses.

Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law, which he cast as aimed at his political foes, was voted down by 190 lawmakers in parliament. His own party urged him to lift the decree. Under South Korean law, the president must immediately lift martial law if parliament demands it by a majority vote.

The crisis in a country that has been a democracy since the 1980s, and is a U.S. ally and major Asian economy, caused international alarm.

US RELIEVED

After Yoon’s announcement of martial law in a TV address, South Korea’s military had said activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.

Helmeted troops briefly tried to enter the parliament building. Parliamentary aides were seen trying to push the soldiers back by spraying fire extinguishers.

The White House said it was pleased Yoon had backed down.

“We are relieved President Yoon has reversed course on his concerning declaration of martial law and respected the… National Assembly’s vote to end it,” a White House spokesperson said.

Earlier, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the United States was watching events in South Korea with “grave concern.” Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to guard against the nuclear-armed North.

Yoon did not cite any specific threat from the North, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents. It was the first time since 1980 that martial law has been declared in South Korea.

Russel, who was the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama, said South Korea was now looking at the prospect of snap elections.

“Political uncertainty and domestic strife in South Korea is not our friend. Political uncertainty and domestic strife in South Korea is North Korea’s friend, however. You can be sure that North Korea is licking its chops,” he said.

Yoon, a career prosecutor, squeezed out a victory in the tightest presidential election in South Korean history in 2022. He rode a wave of discontent over economic policy, scandals and gender wars, aiming to reshape the political future of Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

But he has been unpopular, with his support ratings hovering at around 20% for months.

His People Power Party suffered a landslide defeat at a parliamentary election in April this year, ceding control of the unicameral assembly to opposition parties that captured nearly two-thirds of the seats.

There have been more than a dozen instances of martial law being declared since South Korea was established as a republic in 1948.

In 1980, a group of military officers led by Chun Doo-hwan forced then-President Choi Kyu-hah to proclaim martial law to crush calls by the opposition, labour and students for the restoration of democratic government. — Reuters

SYDNEY – Australians reacted on Friday with a mixture of anger and relief to a social media ban on children under 16 that the government says is world-leading, but which tech giants like TikTok argue could push young people to “darker corners of the internet”.

Australia approved the social media ban for children late on Thursday after an emotive debate that has gripped the nation, setting a benchmark for jurisdictions around the world with one of the toughest regulations targeting Big Tech.

The law forces tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta Platforms to TikTok to stop minors from logging in or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million). A trial of enforcement methods will start in January, with the ban to take effect in a year.

“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday
“We’re making sure that mums and dads can have that different conversation today and in future days.”

Announcing the details of the ban earlier this month, Albanese cited the risks to physical and mental health of children from excessive social media use, in particular the risks to girls from harmful depictions of body image, and misogynist content aimed at boys.

In Sydney on Friday, reaction to the ban was mixed.

“I think that’s a great idea, because I found that the social media for kids (is) not really appropriate, sometimes they can look at something they shouldn’t,” said Sydney resident Francesca Sambas.

Others were more scathing.

“I’m feeling very angry, I feel that this government has taken democracy and thrown it out the window,” said 58-year-old Shon Klose.

“How could they possibly make up these rules and these laws and push it upon the people?”
Children, meanwhile, said they would try to find a way around the ban.

“I feel like I still will use it, just secretly get in,” said 11-year-old Emma Wakefield.

WORLD FIRST

Countries including France and some U.S. states have passed laws to restrict access for minors without a parent’s permission, but the Australian ban is absolute. A full under-14s ban in Florida is being challenged in court on free speech grounds.

The legislation was fast-tracked through the country’s parliament in what is the last sitting week of the year, to criticism from social media firms and some lawmakers who say the bill has lacked proper scrutiny. It passed through the country’s lower house of parliament on Friday morning in a procedural hearing.

A spokesperson for TikTok, which is hugely popular with teen users, said on Friday the process had been rushed and risked putting children into greater danger.

“We’re disappointed the Australian government has ignored the advice of the many mental health, online safety, and youth advocacy experts who have strongly opposed the ban,” the spokesperson said.

“It’s entirely likely the ban could see young people pushed to darker corners of the internet where no community guidelines, safety tools, or protections exist.”

Albanese said on Friday passing the bill before the age verification trial has been completed was the correct approach.

“We are very clearly sending a message about our intentions here,” he said.

“The legislation is very clear. We don’t argue that its implementation will be perfect, just like the alcohol ban for under 18s doesn’t mean that someone under 18 never has access, but we know that it’s the right thing to do.”

The ban could strain Australia’s relationship with key ally the United States, where X owner Elon Musk, a central figure in the administration of president-elect Donald Trump, said in a post this month it seemed a “backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians”.

It also builds on an existing mood of antagonism between Australia and mostly US-domiciled tech giants. Australia was the first country to make social media platforms pay media outlets royalties for sharing their content and now plans to threaten them with fines for failing to stamp out scams. — Reuters

OPEC+ is discussing postponing its oil output hike due to start in January for the first quarter of 2025, OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Thursday, and will hold further talks on this and other options ahead of its delayed policy meeting on Dec. 5.

Issues that need to be addressed include an output hike for the United Arab Emirates agreed in June this year that’s scheduled to start in January 2025, two of the sources said, declining to be identified.

OPEC+, which pumps about half the world’s oil, is gradually aiming to unwind output cuts through 2025. However, a slowdown in global demand and rising output outside the group pose hurdles to that plan and have weighed on prices.

Despite the group’s supply cuts, global oil benchmark Brent crude has mostly stayed in a $70-$80 per barrel range this year and on Thursday was trading around $73 a barrel, having hit a 2024 low below $69 in September.

Earlier on Thursday, OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia, postponed its next meeting on output policy to Dec. 5 from Dec. 1. OPEC said moving the date would avoid a clash with another event.

A summit of Gulf Arab countries is due to be held in Kuwait City on Dec. 1 which several OPEC+ ministers plan to attend, OPEC said in a statement.

“Sunday does not suit everyone,” a source told Reuters before the official announcement.

Top OPEC+ ministers have held talks ahead of the meeting. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, de facto head of OPEC, on Wednesday had a phone call with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Kazakh Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev while in Kazakhstan on an official visit.

Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russia held talks in Baghdad on Tuesday.

OPEC+ on Nov. 3 again postponed its first output hike, which had been set for December, by one month.

OPEC+ members are holding back 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd) of output, or about 5.7% of global demand.

Their planned first increase of about 180,000 bpd – a fraction of the total – is due to be made by the eight members involved in the group’s most recent cuts of 2.2 million bpd.

The UAE, which has been expanding its oil production capacity, also negotiated an oil output hike of 300,000 bpd during 2025 that’s scheduled to start in January. — Reuters

TOKYO – Japan and the U.S. aim to compile a joint military plan for a possible Taiwan emergency that includes deploying missiles, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

Under the plan expected to be complied next month, the U.S. would deploy missile units to the Nansei Islands of Japan’s southwestern Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, and to the Philippines, the report said, citing unnamed U.S. and Japanese sources.

The U.S. Marine Corps’ Marine Littoral Regiment, which has High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and other weapons, will be deployed to the Nansei Islands, Kyodo said.

A U.S. unit dealing with space, cyberspace and electromagnetic waves will be stationed in the Philippines, the report said.

Calls to Japan’s defense ministry and the embassies in Tokyo of the U.S. and the Philippines were not answered on Sunday. — Reuters

WELLINGTON – Tens of thousands of New Zealanders rallied before parliament on Tuesday in one of the country’s largest ever protests to oppose a bill that opponents say seeks to dilute the rights of Maori and threatens to set race relations back decades.

Massive crowds estimated by police at 35,000 gathered at parliament where the Treaty Principles Bill was introduced earlier this month by legislators who want to reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty signed between the British and Indigenous Maori.

The libertarian ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition government, is seeking to enshrine a narrower interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi that it says discriminates against non-Indigenous citizens.

While the bill lacks enough support to pass, critics see in it a desire to reverse decades of policies that aimed to empower Maori, who make up around 20% of the 5.3 million population and are over-represented in measures of social disadvantage.

Tens of thousands began chanting “kill the bill” when ACT leader David Seymour stepped out of parliament before the crowd.

“I’m here for my grandchildren, my children and for their children”, said Hoana Hadfield from Wellington, who was marching in a protest for the first time.

“I think it’s important that we keep our kaupapa which is our values as Maori and our culture and its a real big thing for us to have cultural identity.“

Some people in the crowd were dressed in traditional attire with feathered headgear and cloaks and carried traditional Maori weapons, while others wore t-shirts emblazoned with Toitu te Tiriti (Honour the Treaty).

The protest was preceded by a nine-day march, or hikoi, that began in the country’s far north, with thousands joining rallies in towns and cities as marchers travelled south on foot and in cars to Wellington.

First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Indigenous Maori chiefs, the Treaty lays down how the two parties agreed to govern.

The interpretation of clauses in the document still guides legislation and policy today, with rulings by the courts and a separate Maori tribunal expanding Maori rights and privileges over the decades.

ACT’s coalition partners, the National Party and New Zealand First, agreed to support the legislation through the first of three readings but both have said they will not support it to become legislation.

A small number of politicians from the governing National Party will be available to meet with hikoi leaders, while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is still deciding how to engage, a spokesman for the government said.

Abby Collier, 42, had travelled six hours from her home in Tairawhiti to participate in Tuesday’s protest. She said she was supporting the movement because she believed unity was important.

“We are coming from across the country and showing our babies we can have a positive impact through kindness,” Ms. Collier said. – Reuters

LAS VEGAS – US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election race this summer was “one of the most courageous” any president has made.

“President Biden made a decision that I think history will show was probably one of the most courageous that a president could make, which is he decided to put country above his personal interest,” Ms. Harris said during the Las Vegas event sponsored by Univision, a Spanish-language television network, according to press pool reporters. Her remarks were dubbed into Spanish on television.

“I believe that the stakes right now are extraordinarily high, and potentially, some might say, historians have said unprecedented.”

The Democratic presidential nominee made the remarks when pressed by a voter who said he was leaning towards Trump and expressed concern about how Biden exited the race. The voter said he wanted clarity on why Harris became the nominee without going through a competitive primary.

Mr. Biden ended his re-election bid on July 21, after facing weeks of pressure from prominent Democratic elected officials and donors concerned about his age and fitness. Mr. Biden immediately endorsed Ms. Harris, who locked down the support of enough Democratic delegates to secure the party’s nomination.

Ms. Harris said in an interview on ABC News’ “The View” on Tuesday that there is “not a thing” she would have done differently from Biden as president. The remark was seized upon by Donald Trump’s campaign, which wants voters to see the Republican ex-president as the 2024 candidate of change.

Ms. Harris said Mr. Biden, who is not making regular campaign appearances on her behalf, has been a key partner and supporter and that his decision to leave the race marked a sharp contrast with Mr. Trump, who never conceded his 2020 election loss.

“We are literally having a choice as the American people about choosing a path either that is about rule of law, democracy or something that is about admiring dictators,” she said, according to the pool reporters.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – Reuters

DHAKA — As more extreme rainfall hits South Asia leading to floods that do not recognize national borders, regional countries must work together more to combat the mutual threat, experts said.

Heavy rains led to flash floods and landslides that killed some 200 people in Nepal last month in two days of incessant rains caused by low-pressure in the Bay of Bengal and neighboring parts of India. In August, a flash flood killed at least 71 near the border of India and Bangladesh.

Some 80% of major South Asian cities are at risk of flooding that could cost the region $215 billion a year by 2030, a 2021 report published by the World Bank said.

But despite larger and more frequent cross-border disasters, a trust deficit between South Asian countries has meant they have struggled to work together, and have instead often resorted to mutual recrimination.

India is Nepal’s biggest trading partner, but the two also have a number of border disputes. Similarly, Bangladesh and India have strong economic ties, but are in dispute over water sharing and the killing of people crossing the border illegally.

“No country in the region trusts others when it comes to riparian management, thanks to the political differences,” said Harsh Vasani, a professor of international studies at FLAME University in India.

A Bangladesh government adviser said the August flood was caused by India releasing water from a dam upstream without warning into a river flowing into Bangladesh.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said live data had been shared with Bangladesh about the rising waters, but had stopped due to a power cut caused by the floods. It said the area had seen the “heaviest rains of this year” and in any case most of the water came from catchments downstream from the dam.

“Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them,” the ministry said in a statement.

EARLY WARNINGS
Climate change is likely to trigger more frequent and more extreme weather events, such as the August flood, said Shaikh Rokon, head of Riverine People, a Bangladesh non-profit promoting stewardship of rivers and inshore wetlands.

“But climate change should not be made into a scapegoat for explaining away preparedness gaps within and between countries,” Mr. Rokon said.

The United Nations’ 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction says countries should provide early warnings and help communities make preparations before floods hit.

Forecasts and timely messaging have brought the death toll from monsoon floods to near zero in vulnerable communities in South Asia, said Dharam Raj Uprety from the Britain-based development organization Practical Action, which has implemented flood resilience projects in Bangladesh and Nepal.

But while monsoon floods can be predicted 10 to 12 days ahead, flash floods caused by rain give much less warning and that means alerting communities is a much bigger challenge, said Sardar Uday Raihan, executive engineer at the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and India set up a joint river commission in 1972 to foster cooperation on flood warnings for the 54 rivers that cross their border. India and Nepal have a similar commission.

But it would help if there were real time data sharing on water released from dams and upstream water levels, Mr. Raihan said.

REGIONAL COOPERATION
Joint action is a rarity, said Sumit Vij, a professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. It makes little sense for each country to have its own strategy to adapt to the same floods, he said.

“Though we often stress on locally led adaptation, we actually need countries and areas over the same river basin or climatic region to align their adaptation efforts and share resources to deal with disasters,” Mr. Vij said.

One rare example of cooperation has been over the Koshi and Karnali rivers that flow from Nepal to India.

The project, implemented by Practical Action and other organizations, upgraded weather stations and set up a system to send mobile telephone alerts of rising waters.

While it was carried out mainly on the Nepalese side of the border, the project also benefited Indians living near the frontier who could also receive the flood warnings.

At present, Bangladesh and India have agreements on only a few of the rivers that pass between them. The two countries should formulate a single comprehensive agreement on all their 54 transboundary rivers instead of pursuing lengthy negotiations for each river separately, Vij said.

“We, South Asian nations, need to work together,” he said. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

In the latest round of the conference hosted by the Stratbase ADRi Institute, “Enhancing Indo-Pacific Security: Philippines-South Korea Cooperation Strategies” on Sept. 20, experts from the diplomatic and defense circles converged to critique the current security architecture in the expanded dynamic region. They aimed to expound on strategies in the geometry of relationships of distressed powers tossed by geopolitics and global defense postures of major and middle powers in the Indo-Pacific region.

While the hegemonic rivalry of “Chimerica” (China and the USA) manifested a chain of reaction in the community of competing neighbors in the region, rooted by the defining “lips and teeth” relations in the Korean Peninsula, Japan’s pacific activism in the Senkaku islands, the “tit for tat” dramaturgy in the South China Sea, and India’s effort to check China in Pakistan — these threat perceptions go beyond Russia’s protracted warfare in Ukraine and the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” in Israel’s conflict with Gaza.

The changing regional alliance system challenges the hub-and-spoke model of constant territorial enlargement coursed through mini-lateral and multilateral approaches in building strategic trust among democratic states. This is where the nexus of calculated interests and collective deterrence are needed in the Indo-Pacific region, fueled by a common threat to elevate freedom of navigation at its highest standard contextualized in the process of maritime rules-based order.

The transformative balance of economic cooperation to maritime security paves the way for stronger bilateral relations between the Philippines and South Korea as the two democratic nations celebrate their 75 years of diplomatic ties. On March 11, the Philippine Senate recognized the enduring friendship and cooperation of Manila and Seoul. In the esteemed commendation formalized by the Senate Resolution No. 946, the Philippines commemorated Manila’s active role in the inter-Korean peace process and reconciliation efforts.

During the Korean War in 1950s, 7,440 Filipino soldiers served in the Republic of Korea to secure the battered peninsula. Seoul is reciprocating Manila’s benevolence by playing a key role in the ongoing modernization of the Philippines’ Armed Forces and becoming one of the country’s largest development partners. The two countries inked a free trade agreement on Sept. 7, 2023 for immediate ratification in South Korea.

Seoul geared up a trilateral pact with Tokyo and Washington on Aug. 18, 2023 in pursuit of the Camp David principles. For its part, Manila has replicated the same mini-lateral template to propel its existing three-sided defense and trade cooperation with Japan and the US which was announced on April 11. This was meant to fortify America’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region that is connected, prosperous, secure, inclusive, and resilient. But these trilateral pacts will have to evolve into a Northeast Asian quadrilateral arrangement for Japan-Philippines-South Korea-US cooperation amid unpredictability in the upcoming US elections.

South Korea stands as a quasi-island and a product of the Cold War still threatened by North Korea’s massive stock of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Nonetheless, the support it gives to the Philippines to make concrete a grounded self-reliance defense posture, to develop a maiden industrial base in support of maintenance and operations of its procured expensive defense weapon systems and re-engineered military materiel, would grow enough to sustain our two countries’ strategic partnership and defense economics.

Given Manila’s burden of sharing due to its own inherent vulnerabilities in the West Philippine Sea, joint military training and maritime exercises for interoperability are endorsed to unburden like-minded nations on its own external defense. Seoul can offer its stencil for advanced research and development, intelligence gathering and information sharing, and capability building in the dawn of artificial intelligence to the Philippines, aside from South Korea’s advantages in blue ocean economy and coast guard diplomacy.

The rise of new technologies, such as autonomous vehicles and cyber warfare, will certainly create new challenges for maritime security and law enforcement in the region. The physical realities of geography in the Indo-Pacific region can generate acceptable strategic trust to solve specific problems despite constancy of dialogue and diplomacy. This is where the Philippines and South Korea are seen as capacity builders to deter proxy wars and conflicts in the tense region.

By elevating Seoul as Manila’s newest strategic partner, there will be a push for strategic intent to craft a defense deal, similar to Japan’s Reciprocal Access Agreement (that needs to be ratified yet in Tokyo), or perhaps France’s prerogative to sign a Visiting Forces Agreement to join its western allies, in the same league of Canberra and Washington that enjoy military agreements with the Philippines. Recently, Hanoi forged a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Manila to secure a stronger voice for rule-based norms in Southeast Asia.

Through the proposed establishment of Indo-Pacific mini-lateral cooperation, Manila and Seoul can become solution providers to unravel small regional risks and insecurities with greater impact on global security. At the same time, they can strengthen successful regional trilateral cooperation to further develop the mini-lateral mechanisms as exemplified in the intensified Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines tri-border patrols of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas. As no conflict can be isolated for itself, there should be goal congruence and dynamic equilibrium for like-minded nations in preserving the new arsenal of democratic values. We need this to increase the appreciation of maritime rules-based order amid changing leaderships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Dr. Chester B. Cabalza is a non-resident fellow of the Stratbase ADRi. He is the founding president of the International Development and Security Cooperation (IDSC) and teaches in the graduate school at the University of the Philippines, Diliman (UPD).