UK Foreign Secretary Addresses ASEAN Meet in Manila

Thank you so much Foreign Minister Trung and can I thank you first of all for your warm welcome today and for Vietnam's excellent support as our country coordinator over the past year, we are extremely grateful to you.

And thank you to Secretary Lazaro and the Philippines for their leadership as ASEAN Chair and I want to thank all of the distinguished ministers today for the warm welcome you have given me on my first international trip since being appointed Foreign Secretary a just about forty eight hours ago.

I felt it was very very important to come straight to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting as a sign of solidarity with ASEAN countries and of the importance we attach to this partnership.

And that is the message I most of all want to convey today excellencies, which is the UK's commitment to ASEAN and commitment for the long term.

A commitment that remains just as strong for the UK's new Prime Minister as it did for our previous Prime Minister and for me personally.

And indeed today excellencies, we mark the fifth anniversary of the ASEAN-UK Dialogue Partnership. Five years is obviously not a long time in diplomacy. But it is long enough I think, to build habits of cooperation, to establish trust, and to show that commitments made are commitments kept.

I am proud, if you will allow me, to mark the positive progress that we have made in delivering our first Plan of Action.

We have helped advance the ASEAN Power Grid. We've stepped up cooperation against online scams and organised crime and we've strengthened our ties from health security to education. These are practical examples of what a trusted partnership can deliver.

And I welcome the adoption today of a new Plan of Action to guide our partnership through the next five years, alongside our joint statement on the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, which reaffirms our commitment to upholding international law and addressing mutual challenges.

And I think this is an important point, because whether on maritime security, energy security, economic resilience or emerging technologies, our future will increasingly be shaped by how we work together multilaterally.

And indeed we meet at a moment when the world is ever more unstable and uncertain. Devastating conflict in Sudan, in Palestine, in Lebanon and beyond so we must inject renewed international and momentum to halt the suffering and secure lasting peace.

And I know in particular how much the Iran conflict is affecting ASEAN partners. You are feeling as much as anyone across the world the daily impact on your economies and the living standards of your citizens, as well indeed as the impact on seafarers from many ASEAN nations.

We too in the UK in our own way are feeling the effects of the conflict, on families and businesses in the impacts on the cost of living.

We very much welcome the MoU reached in June between the US and Iran and the US condemns in the strongest terms the unjustified attacks by Iran since then on shipping and indeed on our Gulf partners.

As a government I assure you we will work intensely with others to seek to deescalate this conflict and find a diplomatic way forward which is in all of our interests. That must include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and upholding the fundamental principle of freedom of navigation, a principle that the maritime nations around the table know better than anyone, is so important.

As a government we will also continue to stand with Ukraine. In such a world, collaboration matters as they defend themselves against Russia's unprovoked and premeditated aggression. Aggression that is not just a test of Ukrainian resilience, but of our collective resolve.

And following the UK government's historic recognition of the State of Palestine, we must not lose sight of the plight of those suffering in Gaza and the West Bank. And we will continue to work with others to bring about a just and lasting peace to bring about security for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Indeed in this era of international instability, we must go even further to defend the principles at the heart of the UN Charter, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the rule of law and an international system in which countries, large and small, can make their own choices free from coercion.

Principles reflected in the ASEAN Charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, now in its 50th year, principles that the UK strongly supports.

That is why we remain firmly behind ASEAN centrality and the rules-based ASEAN-led regional architecture.

The ASEAN Regional Forum is, in our view, a leading example, and we hope to become a permanent member soon.

ASEAN's ability to bring countries together for open and respectful dialogue has, in our view, never been more important.

So let me end by saying this, as we celebrate five years of our Dialogue Partnership, I look forward in my role as Foreign Secretary to deepen our cooperation still further.