At a time when the situation in the South China Sea is tense, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has added another fire, openly cooperating with the United States in a recent interview, threatening to ask the US military to intervene in accordance with the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" if Philippine soldiers are killed in the friction in the South China Sea.
However, at this critical juncture, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian visited the Philippines and met with his country's counterpart Manaro in Manila. In the presence of the Philippine Foreign Minister, Vivian expounded his position on the South China Sea issue on behalf of Singapore, bluntly stated that he would not take sides with any claimant country in the South China Sea, and hoped to advance the negotiations on the "Code of Conduct in the South China Sea" as soon as possible.
Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Vivian
Singapore's foreign minister's remarks not only uphold his consistent neutrality, but also remind the Philippines that countries in the South China Sea, including Singapore, do not want to see the peace and stability of the regional situation undermined, let alone approve of any action that could lead to a military conflict in the South China Sea.
If the Philippines insists on going its own way, it will not receive any support within ASEAN. As a country that is quite influential within ASEAN and can speak in front of both China and the United States, Singapore's statement can be said to be quite weighty.
Over the past period of time, the reason why the Philippines has dared to brazenly encounter China in the South China Sea is simply because it has the support of the United States behind it. However, the United States is an extraterritorial country, and if the countries surrounding the South China Sea and China all take the same position and jointly resist the actions of foreign forces to disrupt the South China Sea, then the US-Philippine intervention attempt is doomed to fail.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos
It is also worth noting that Singapore is now at a critical juncture in the transition of power, with the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong set to hand over power in mid-May, and will be led by his successor, Lawrence Wong. On this critical occasion, Singapore's foreign minister made a personal trip to the Philippines and made such a statement.
It shows that Singapore's domestic and foreign policy will basically continue the "Lee Hsien Loong style", that is, to seek a balance between China and the United States, refuse to take sides, and at the same time have a good relationship with China at the economic level.
Based on this, Singapore cannot sit idly by and watch the existence of some destabilizing factors within the region that could undermine the overall situation of cooperation in the South China Sea, because Singapore itself is a port-based country that relies on the Strait of Malacca to collect tolls from passing ships, and if tensions in the South China Sea and the Sino-US game intensifies, then trade will naturally be affected.
Passing merchant ships in the Straits of Malacca
This can be described as an unbearable burden for Singapore, so many high-level figures, including Singapore's defense minister Ng Eng Hen, have repeatedly stressed that the most important task in the next 10 years is to avoid conflicts in the Asian region when attending international security conferences, and called on China and the United States to avoid "going to war."
As the most influential power in the region, China fully understands the common concerns of countries in the South China Sea and has been taking concrete actions to safeguard regional peace.
In the face of increasingly complex challenges in maritime cooperation and governance, it is more urgent for China and ASEAN to accelerate the "integration of the blue economy". According to relevant data, more than 94% and 60% of the foreign trade between China and ASEAN are realized by sea respectively, and more than 60% of the trade between China and ASEAN is also carried out by sea.
China-ASEAN Expo
This shows the importance of peace and stability in the South China Sea to the economic development of China and ASEAN, and it is precisely for this reason that the United States has instigated the Philippines to send ships to touch China, which has led to the intensification of friction between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, which not only violates China's sovereignty, but also harms the common interests of regional countries.
As the military operations between the United States and the Philippines become more and more intensive, the voices of resistance from neighboring countries will become louder, and the recent announcement by the United States of the deployment of land-based medium-range missiles in the northern part of the Philippine island of Luzon and its plan to bring in Japan and the Philippines to hold a new round of joint military exercises have aroused the vigilance of neighboring countries.
The United States' attempt to provoke bloc confrontation in the South China Sea and win over a "small circle" to contain China can be said to be clear, and regional countries have long seen it clearly. In the face of the US scheme, China is stepping up patrols and law enforcement by the Chinese Coast Guard in the South China Sea, and at the same time holding live-fire exercises of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the South China Sea from time to time to resolutely safeguard regional peace and stability.
The China Coast Guard patrols and enforces the law in the South China Sea
At the diplomatic level, China has actively strengthened communication and contacts with other ASEAN countries, urged the two sides to reach a consensus, and worked together to maintain the overall stability of the situation in the South China Sea, so that the United States' attempt to provoke bloc confrontation could not succeed. To put it bluntly, as long as we insist on uniting more peace-loving and solid forces to inject stability into the South China Sea, the United States will not be able to find a lever to leverage even if it wants to undermine the situation in the South China Sea.