Philippines: ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Opens in Cebu on October 26, Running to October 30 with Focus on the South China Sea and Undersea Infrastructure Security
The Philippines serves as ASEAN chair this year, and the 20th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting and the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus are scheduled to be held from October 26 to 30 in Lapu-Lapu City in the Cebu metropolitan area in the central Philippines. Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said at a Department of National Defense press conference that the meeting agenda includes the South China Sea situation, undersea critical infrastructure, and maritime law and security. In addition, the ceasefire monitoring mission carried out by the ASEAN observer group on the Cambodia-Thailand border will also be among the topics discussed. As Chinese ocean survey vessels have recently been found lingering in waters in the northern Philippines, the security of undersea infrastructure including submarine cables has become a matter of outside concern. The Philippine Coast Guard disclosed on October 2 that three Taiwan coast guard vessels also appeared in the relevant waters, monitoring the Chinese ocean survey vessel; a Philippine official in the United States said at a think tank forum in Washington on October 21 that, although the Philippines has its one-China policy, it is still exploring deepening cooperation with Taiwan, in directions including knowledge sharing and capacity building, to protect the shared interests of undersea facilities. Dialogue partners of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus include the United States, China, Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Russia. Teodoro said that, as far as he knew, the defense ministers of almost all dialogue partners would attend. Asked whether China would send a representative, he said the Philippines had sent China a meeting notice but did not know whether China would send anyone. Security during the meeting in Cebu, the progress of the agenda and the content of the joint statement will be important windows for observing the direction of ASEAN defense cooperation.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 宿雾市天际线（资料图）。摄影：PaulGorduiz106，CC BY-SA 4.0，取自 Wikimedia Commons。Photo: Cebu City skyline (file photo). Credit: PaulGorduiz106, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
