Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Wednesday that expanding interoperability with allies across Southeast Asia and the Pacific region forms a core pillar of a broader strategic deterrence effort.

Addressing the 37th US Indo-Pacific Command Military Law and Operations conference, Teodoro delivered a keynote address titled “Philippine Perspectives on Regional Security Threats” alongside Malaysian Minister of Defense Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn.

Teodoro stressed that the Philippines holds a unique strategic position as the only member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with a maritime domain in the Pacific Ocean, including the Philippine Rise.

“No other ASEAN country, I repeat, has that,” Teodoro said, noting that the country straddles both the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, serving as a geographic gateway between the two regions.