MANILA: A security grouping in Southeast Asia similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is not possible at present, given diverging interests and alliances in the region, the Philippines’ Defense Secretary said on Tuesday.
Asked about the prospect of a NATO equivalent in Southeast Asia, Gilberto Teodoro told a security forum that ASEAN’s complex “dichotomies and divergence in country interests” would make it challenging to set up a unified military alliance.
“For example, we have a pre-ASEAN defense alliance with the United States. We continue to build alliances with like-minded countries,” he said in a security forum in Manila.
“Other ASEAN countries have built alliances with China.”
The remarks come after Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, prior to taking office, had floated the idea of establishing an “Asian NATO”, a proposal that has gained no traction and was rejected by the US and India.
Japan’s foreign minister later said such an idea was not aimed at countering a specific country, when asked if it had China in mind.
