Marco Rubio Attends East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting | ASEAN Summit 2026 in Manila | AC1Z

[00:01:13]I'm going to His Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, welcome to the 16th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers meeting. Without further ado, may I invite her excellency Maria Thoressa P.

[00:03:21]Lazero, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines and chair of the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers meeting to deliver her opening remarks. Excellency, the floor is yours.

[00:03:33]>> Thank you very much, your royal highness, excellencies, distinguished colleagues, uh, members of the media.

[00:03:40]Good afternoon. I have the honor to welcome you to the 16th East Asia Summit foreign ministers meeting and I wish to acknowledge the presence of everyone from the foreign ministers of the EAS participating countries and their accompanying delegations to the members of the media and sincerely thank you for your active participation in the past week for the preparatory meetings the ministerial meetings and the post-ministerial conferences.

[00:04:09]I would like to welcome his royal highness prince Abdul Matin to his first EAS foreign minister's meeting and his excellency foreign minister bendito dos freightas um from the moor for his first EAS foreign foreign minister's meeting as well as we begin this meeting we are reminded of the ideals that brought forth the east Asia summit 20 years ago our leaders believed believed that further enhancing cooperation, strengthening existing bonds of friendship among the countries in keeping with the principles of equality, partnership, consultation, and consensus are keys to contributing to peace, security, and economic prosperity in the region and the world at large. They acknowledge that in an increasingly interconnected world, there is a need for concerted regional and global efforts to respond to common challenges.

[00:05:09]And there is no denying that we are living in a period full of common challenges.

[00:05:15]From the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, the escalation of conflicts in many parts of the world, the tariff wars of last year, the crisis in the Middle East, and not to mention the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, as well as opportunities and threats posed by emerging dual use technologies. The past decade has been appending the prevailing global order in profound, turbulent, and often irrevocable ways. But as we have seen in the past few years, given the interconnectedness and interdependence of our nations, it has shown that as we the only way we can navigate the increasingly volatile future is by working together. It is critical that we continue the work as one not despite these challenges but because of them. How we respond to the challenges of today determines how well each of us still will fare tomorrow. And it is in forums such as the East Asia Summit that we get to discuss decisions that can ultimately steer us towards stability, certainty and predictability.

[00:06:26]The East Asia Summit as the premier leaders led forum on broad strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern has long served as a space for open dialogue, candid exchange and practical cooperation on the broadest and most consequential issues of our times.

[00:06:47]Beyond discussions, the EAS is supported by implementation cooperation in diverse work streams such as peace and security, connectivity, economic cooperation and trade, sustainable development, climate envir environment and energy, education, health and maritime cooperation. The EAS supports aan community building through relevant efforts that are responds responsive to the times. But what makes the ES all the more important especially in these times is that it brings together perspectives that are diverse, sometimes divergent and yet still deeply intertwined. The EAS has both the distinct privilege to be and the unique responsibility to remain as an open, inclusive, transparent and outward-looking forum that is responsive of half of the world's population.

[00:07:45]Through our intentional, consultative and pragmatic approach with ASEAN as the driving force, we are able to ground ourselves amidst the upheaval, uncertainty, and unpredictability of our current world. We must do what we can in developing this fragile peace while contributing towards a rules-based order anchored in international law amidst geopolitical tensions and rivalries and upholding the rules-based multilateral system in international law. And with that I