Palace lukewarm to AUKUS military pact, cites nuclear ban treaty

By Prince Golez

Malacañang hoped that the new military partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, won’t violate the country’s Constitution and the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty.

Under the new AUKUS defense pact, Australia will acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines which are expected to be deployed to the South China Sea.

“I will talk to the President about this new initiative. But preliminarily, I can say that the President is the chief executor of our laws and the Constitution of the Philippines provides for a nuclear-free Philippines,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual presser Monday.

“And we are also a party to the ASEAN-Bangkok Accord providing for a nuclear-free Southeast Asia. So I would say that the immediate concern of the Philippines is to ensure that its [Constitution] and its treaty providing for nuclear-free Southeast Asia will not be violated because of this accord,” added Roque.

In a September 19 statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. welcomed Australia’s decision to establish an enhanced trilateral security partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom.

The trilateral security partnership, according to Locsin, “would be beneficial in the long term.”

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)