President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that the Philippines' actions to assert sovereignty over the disputed regions in the South China Sea are not intended to incite conflict against Beijing by “poking the bear."

When asked about the willingness of U.S. to engage in war with China over disputed reefs in the South China Sea, Marcos Jr. said the Philippines taking action under the direction of the United States is to address the escalating danger posed by China's expansive territorial assertions in the South China Sea.

"We want to do everything we possibly can together with our partners and our allies, to avoid that situation. This is not poking the bear, as it were. We are trying to do quite the opposite," Marcos Jr. said in a recent television interview.

"We are trying to keep things at a manageable level, to continue the dialogues, whatever they are, at every level. And we have initiated many of those dialogues, we have dialogues at the sub-ministerial level, at the ministerial level and at the executive level," Marcos Jr. added.

The maritime dispute between the Philippines and Beijing over a series of contested reefs and islands became a critical flashpoint in the region.

Since Marcos Jr. took oath as President in 2022, the Philippine military and coastguard have increased operations to supply troops at a remote outpost and escort fishermen he claims have depended on the waters "for generations."

“We have not instigated any kind of conflict. We have not instigated any kind of confrontation. We are just trying to feed our people,” Marcos Jr. said.

The Chief Executive said his country is unable to recognize Beijing's expansive claims, which are based on a "ten-dash line" that crosses the majority of the South China Sea.

A United Nations tribunal dismissed Beijing's claims in 2016, a decision that President Xi Jinping's administration has since rejected.

Marcos emphasized that he has continued conversations with Beijing despite the impasse and that he does not want to be in a position where he has to use a mutual defense treaty that the Philippines has had with the US for many years.

When asked what would cause him to use such a defense agreement, Marcos replied that the Philippines would need to have an "existential threat."

“I hope the time never comes that we have to answer that question,” he said. “When you talk about the mutual defense treaty, to invoke that, actual outright violent conflict, then this is a very, very dangerous, very, very slippery road to go down.”

The MDT, a defense pact that joins the two allies to help defend each other from assault, was signed by the US and the Philippines in 1951.