Australia to continue working with Philippines for ‘prosperous’ Indo-Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — Australia will continue to work with the Philippines for an “open, inclusive, stable, prosperous and free” Indo-Pacific, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said over the weekend.

Marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Australia, Morrison emphasized the two countries’ shared history of the free, democratic and sovereign nations, and wide ranging links in defense, trade, education, security and development.

“Our people-to-people links are strong and enduring – as they should be for countries that share a home: our Indo-Pacific. We also share a vision of what our home should be. Open, inclusive, stable, prosperous and free,” Morrision said in a video message.

“That is what we have worked for over the last 75 years. And it is what we will continue to work for – together – over the next 75,” he said.

Morrison acknowledges shared values of mateship and bayanihan, and the hard work over the past 75 years of both countries to secure an inclusive, stable and prosperous region.

“Australia looks forward to working with the Philippines to uphold these values,” he added.

On May 22, 1946, Australia’s first consulate was opened in the Philippines.

“It was your great Filipino Patriot, Jose Rizal, who once said, ‘He who does not know how to look back at where we have come from, will never get to his destination,’” Morrison continued.

The Philippines and Australia, he said, forged a bond more than 75 years ago, during the great conflict of the Second World War.

“On the beaches at Leyte, in the jungles at Mindanao and the seas of Lingayen Gulf. It was there that our bayanihan or mateship – as we say in Australia – was born,” Morrison said. “We stood together against the militarism and the cruelties of those terrible times. Together we won a peace, together we won a war.”

He said bayanihan is the “source of our enduring respect and cooperation” and “our bilateral relationship is far-reaching.”