AMBASSADOR of Australia to the Philippines Steven J. Robinson AO expressed his country’s principle-based stance surrounding current tensions in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea, as he remarked that all countries should subscribe to laws that govern free passages through international waters.
“Australia will say what it needs to say in support of those rules, norms and conventions,” Robinson insisted in Thursday’s webinar with members of the local media, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Philippines’s and Australia’s diplomatic relations, which also coincided with World Press Freedom Day.
The diplomat was concerned of any action taken by any country that seeks to inhibit free passage, as well as freedom of navigation and overflights: “If we see anything unfortunate along those lines, then Australia will express its views—which we have done in the past, and continue to do so.”
Robinson said certain countries might not like Australia’s views, “but we are taking our principles to this… We are saying [that] all countries should adhere to the rules and norms and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [Unclos].”
He stated it would be up to other countries “to interpret whatever action they wish to take as a result of that. But I would hope that, as we do with all countries, we have positive discussions about issues, and find ways through [them].”
Australia, the United States, Japan and India comprise the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad,” that aims to address Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific region.
Containing ‘Covid’
IN the two-hour long discussion, Robinson expressed his amazement by the fortitude of the Filipinos against the pandemic, as he said Australia has committed AU$500 million to support access to safe and effective vaccines, as well as the promotion of health in the Indo-Pacific region—including the Philippines.
The diplomat said Canberra has contributed AU$18 million to the Covax facility, which has committed to deliver vaccines to the most vulnerable sectors in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. According to him, the Philippines has received 525,600 doses of the vaccine, “the second highest delivered so far in [the region].”
He added Australia was able to redirect funding for a cooperation program to reinforce the Philippines’s response to the pandemic.
Robinson noted that the commonwealth’s development program in this country is one of the largest in the world, focused on contributing to the Philippines’s prosperity, stability and resiliency.
For one, Australia has supported the Philippine Red Cross to establish the largest local molecular laboratory for coronavirus disease 2019 testing that helped the poor in Manila. It has the capacity to accommodate 12,000 samples a day.
Australia’s highest envoy in the country said he is looking forward to a week before friendship day this May, when he—together with Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.—will witness the lighting of the LED globe in front of SM Mall of Asia to signal the 75th year of friendship between his country and the Philippines.
Trade and business
AS an update, Australian Embassy officials shared that there are currently 300 Australian companies operating in the Philippines employing 44,000 locals, mainly in the business-process outsourcing sector, or BPOs. These firms are also responsible for the interior design at Clark International Airport and the Philippine Arena, they confirmed.
Robinson revealed that the construction of the four-lane Cavite-Laguna Expressway, as well as the engineering and architecture for the Manila-Clark railway project, were done by Australian enterprises.
In education, the envoy said his country is a preferred destination by Filipino students, where 17,000 of them enrolled in 2019.
There were 300,000 Filipino visitors in the “Land Down Under” supporting a booming tourism industry before the pandemic, as Robinson hopes to see it peak anew in due course.
The Philippines is part of the Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, or AANZFTA; and recently, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The latter seeks to broaden and deepen Asean’s engagement with Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Together, these RCEP-participating countries account for about 30 percent of the global gross domestic product, serving 30 percent of the world’s population.
“These agreements move 99 percent of their goods and trade tariff-free,” Robinson claimed, as he added Australia is the Philippines top source of beef and lamb, as well as top-table grapes, citrus and “stone” fruits (referring to a variety of fruits that have a pit, or “stone” in the center, encased in a fleshly outer area), and the second-top supplier of wine.