Last year, I visited all ten ASEAN member countries, and my determination grew increasingly firm with each country I visited.
This is because these visits taught me that we share common groundwork regarding our commitment to valuing the rule of law, and that we enjoy a consensus in our respect for freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight.
Indeed, in most of the countries of the region, economic growth has steadily brought freedom of thought and religion and checks and balances to the political systems, even though the speed of these changes varies from country to country.
The sheer idea of the rule of law, which is one great pillar for human rights, has taken deeper root.
Freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, which undergirds these two, form the Asia-Pacific’s rich basso continuo that supports the melody played in a bright and cheery key. I find myself newly gripped by that sound day after day.
The importance of international law
I have now shared with you how I perceive the circumstances that surround us.
Now, my first central point for today, that is that we must observe international law. International law prescribes the order governing the seas. Its history is long indeed, stretching back to the days of ancient Greece, we are told. By Roman times, the seas were already kept open to all, with personal possession and partitioning of the sea prohibited. |
