President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said an enduring peace in the Asia-Pacific region would rely heavily on the United States and China having crucial roles in pushing for peace and economic development in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The continued stability of this region requires China and the United States to manage that rivalry responsibly. It is never a choice. Both countries are important,” Marcos said in his speech at the opening of the 21st edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend.

He also noted that the stabilizing US presence in the area “is crucial to regional peace.”

“Nations in the Indo-Pacific must reject any attempt to deny their strategic agencies, especially by forces that seek to subordinate the former’s interests to those of the latter,” he added.

Marcos stressed that the global community must adhere to the rules-based international order governed by international law and “informed by principles of equity and of justice.”

He emphasized the need to reaffirm and adhere to the principles underpinning this rules-based order, such as those enshrined in the United Nations Charter that was negotiated in San Francisco in 1945, the Bangkok Declaration that established ASEAN in 1967, and the Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes that was adopted unanimously by the UN in 1982.