A Philippine Navy officer and academic on Friday urged the Philippines to strengthen minilateral partnerships with like-minded countries, saying multilateral institutions have limitations in addressing the country’s evolving security challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

Speaking at the Kyiv-Manila Dialogue at the Ateneo De Manila University Rockwell Campus, Rear Adm. Rommel Jude Ong, professor of praxis at the Ateneo School of Government, said the Philippines’ experience with China has exposed the constraints of multilateralism within Southeast Asia.

“We have to accept the fact that the Philippines is an outlier as far as vis-à-vis ASEAN because of our China policy… [t]hat reflects on the sort of constraints that we are available to; that reflects on the limits of how multilateralism can work with us,” Ong said.

He said those limitations underscore the need to pursue “minilateralism” — ad hoc cooperation among a small group of like-minded countries that share common interests and security concerns.