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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
May 27, 2025 | 7:12pm
(L-R) Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Albudaiwi, Myanmar's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aung Kyaw Moe, Qatar's Minister of Commerce and Industry Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al Thani, Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Oman's Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Affairs Sayyid Asaad Tariq Taimur Al Said, Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, China's Premier Li Qiang, Brunei Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof, Ruler of the UAE's Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al Qasimi, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet, Indonesia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiono, Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn pose for a group photo at the ASEAN - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - China Summit after the 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur on May 27, 2025.
AFP / Jam Sta Rosa
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked leaders from Southeast Asia and the Gulf states to support the Philippines' bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council during the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Tuesday, May 27.
"We take this opportunity to reaffirm the Philippines' candidature to the United Nations Security Council for the term 2027–2028," Marcos said in his speech at the 2nd ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Kuala Lumpur. "We hope to count on your valuable support as we seek to bring our regions' perspectives to the United Nations Security Council."
The Philippines is aiming for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council, the UN's most powerful body that can authorize military action and impose sanctions.
The Security Council has five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China — plus 10 non-permanent seats, five of which are elected every year to serve two-year terms.
A Security Council seat would give the Philippines a voice in global peace and security decisions, including ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. The country previously served on the council in 1957-58, 1963-64, 1975-76, and 1981-82.
In trumpeting the Philippines, Marcos pitched the peace process in Mindanao — parts of which are where most of the country's Muslims reside — as proof of the country's credentials in peace-building.
The president called the peace process in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao "the centerpiece of our country's experience in building peace and forging new paths of cooperation that can enrich the work of the United Nations Security Council."
The Bangsamoro region was created in 2019 following a peace deal that ended decades of armed conflict between the government and Muslim separatist groups in Mindanao.
The Philippines' campaign for a Security Council seat has been anchored on its defense of international law amid the repeated hostilities it encounters from Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea that falls within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
Manila has consistently called for adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and recognition of a ruling by a tribunal constituted under UNCLOS in 2016 that nullified China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
