Indian Council of World Affairs

Nivedita: On behalf of ICWA, it's my pleasure to welcome you all to this talk by Madam Delia Domingo Albert, the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. She is going to give a talk on the topic Women, Peace, and Security in ASEAN. We'll start with the welcome remarks by Ms. Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, Additional Secretary, ICWA. Thereafter, Secretary Albert will give a talk. And we'll have a discussion after that for 25 minutes, and then we'll break for a high tea. With this, may I now invite Ms. Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, AS, ICWA, to give her welcome remarks. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Thank you, Nivedita. Friends, it is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to Madam Delia Domingo Albert, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Philippines to ICWA. India and Philippines share very friendly and problem-free relations. The relations have been on an upward trajectory in recent years. Philippines is a key partner for India in our ACT-EAST policy and in ASEAN. It is a privilege for ICWA to host Madam Albert for delivering a talk on Women, Peace, and Security in ASEAN. Madam Albert has an outstanding bio profile. She holds the unique distinction of being the first woman career diplomat to become Minister of Foreign Affairs in Philippines and in Asia. She has served as the ambassador of Philippines to Federal Republic of Germany and Australia with concurrent accreditation to three Pacific Island countries. She has served in diplomatic missions of the Philippines in Switzerland, Romania, and Hungary. 

As chair of the United Nations Security Council in 2004, she is credited with introducing the agenda, the role of civil society in post-conflict peace building, highlighting the role of women as peacemakers. She is highly decorated for her work in international politics and diplomacy. Governments of Romania, Japan, Australia, and Philippines have awarded her for her merit and exceptional service. The Philippine Women's University has conferred on her Doctor of Humanities for promoting a gender-fair society in the country. At present, she is serving on the board of trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, on the advisory board of the Global Summit of Women, and on the ASEAN Society of Philippines. 

Indeed, the role of women within the broader domain of international relations and diplomacy needs serious reflection. ICWA has been focusing on gender-related issues pertaining to international security and diplomacy. We in ICWA held a conference on the topic, women in power, gender. Within international relations and diplomacy, wherein the need for applying a gender lens to foreign policy issues ranging from peace and security, development, human rights, humanitarian assistance, development cooperation, culture, and soft power were discussed. ICWA has also engaged itself on the subject of gender-sensitive foreign policies, which have been adopted by certain countries and whose number is growing. Your talk today, madam, is a continuation of such discussions and conversations. Women's voices and leadership are key to sustaining peace, stability, and development and to shaping the agenda for international norm-setting and discourse. In the current geopolitical landscape and given the ongoing conflicts, the efforts to implement the women, peace, and security agenda are more critical now than ever. At the regional level, ASEAN, on its part, has been committed to advancing women, peace, and security as a regional priority agenda. In this context, we very much look forward to your talk. I also warmly welcome all our distinguished guests, the women Heads of Missions, members of the diplomatic corps, leading academics and experts on gender and security studies who have joined us today for the talk. We look forward to your interventions. May I now invite Madam Albert to deliver her talk. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Well, it's nice to be among girls. That's what I try to distinguish, the girls who are always, at least in my foreign service, when I call them girls, they become more alert. Anyway, thank you again, and I thank the Indian Council for Off World Affairs. I was looking at W here. It can be the Indian Council of Women Affairs. Not a bad idea for the kind invitation to be with you all this afternoon. I'm delighted to be in India again after several visits in the past, first as a diplomat, as a minister, and now as a private citizen and a member of the board of trustees of the Philippine Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. We are here on this trip to celebrate the life work of 53 Indian recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for their service to humanity. Our main criteria for this award is to find the greatness of spirit of an individual who has served humanity. 

And our first awardee, when we were founded in 1959, was the Dalai Lama, a few months after he arrived in Dharamsala. In recognition of his leadership, of his community's gallant struggle in defense of the sacred religion that is the inspiration of the life of his people and their culture. Last Wednesday, we, members of the board of the Magsaysay Foundation, met with the Dalai Lama to officially turn over the award which he received in 1959 because they rebuilt the museum in Dharamsala. How many of you have been to his museum? If you recall, in the middle of the museum is the Nobel Prize that he won, and right beside it is our award, of which I'm very proud. And so we felt that the whole board should go there and greet him on this occasion. And when we had a dialogue with him, his assistant pushed me next to him and told me to hold his hand. 

I said, oh dear, he's a holy man, I'm not. And said, go ahead, hold his hand, because he's offering his hand. So I held his hand, and then another hand, and I put my hand, I said, now I'm blessed. Anyway, that was quite an awesome experience. I'm not a very spiritual person, but when you are in that situation, it's a very unique feeling that I don't think I will ever experience again. Anyway, what he represents is really what we, in our foundation, are looking for, the greatness of spirit. This is the one and only measure within which we choose who our awardees are. Since 1959 to the present, we have awarded 384, and out of that, 54 are from India, which has the biggest number of our awardees. For those of you who are not familiar with this award, Ramon Magsaysay was our president who died in an airplane crash, and he epitomized what a leader should be. Clean, incorruptible and a true leader of the masses. And this is where the name of the award and mainly our main focus then was good governance and honest government. But beyond that, we have awarded social workers, doctors, and from Thailand, I don't know, the secret is out. 

We are awarding the 50-year-old rural movement of doctors. Doctors in the rural areas who have given free medical attention for the past 50 years. Anyway, I thought I'd give you a little background of why we are here and then why I'm delighted to be in India again. I understand from you that our foreign minister was here last year and he gave a lecture on the shared values and common outlook on the bilateral relations between India and the Philippines. He focused on the depth and the breadth of our relationship, so I am not going to touch on that. Instead, I'm here to, of course, strengthen the bilateral bond between our two countries and between India and ASEAN. I'm an ASEAN, I won't say fan, because I grew up in the atmosphere of ASEAN in terms of my own professional career. I thought I will not give a lecture, but rather tell you stories. You know, I like to watch TED Talks, and Steve Jobs one time said that to deliver a message, you must tell a story. And that story must be able to answer questions of why and how. So I'm not Steve Jobs, but I'll try to do a little TED Talk. For the past few months, I have been visiting our diplomatic posts. I don't know, perhaps because the only woman they could convince to go and visit them. I happily did it, and that's why I was recently in Romania and went to the border with Moldova, and I was shocked to see tanks ready to go into the other side of the fence. And that was the day that Biden gave the go signal to Zelensky that he can hit Russia. 

But anyway, I'm not going to be political today. I visited our posts because many of our posts this year, including India, is celebrating 75 years of our diplomatic relations. However, in Eastern Europe, I was invited to Prague, Budapest, and Bucharest because 50 years ago, I opened our first post behind the Iron Curtain. You see, the Philippines, for the longest time, had no relationship with Eastern Europe until 1972, when we decided, after being an active member of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which India was a very, played a major role after the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, of course, we decided to open relationship with countries behind what was called then the Iron Curtain. And we opened, I opened 50 years ago, Bucharest, Budapest, and Prague. So I was there again, this two months ago, and I was very pleased to see how things have changed, how things have changed, at least for the better. 

And I remember that in 1972, when we opened our relations with Eastern Europe, we had to justify to the public why we are going to be friends with the countries behind the curtain. And I remember our very articulate foreign minister then, Carlos Piromalo, he coined the slogan, if you want to call it, we are a friend to all and an enemy to none. And since then, it has been repeated all over Asia today, especially when we have our ASEAN meetings, that we are opening relationship with everybody. But the initial statement was made in 1972 when we justified to our public that we are opening relationship with countries in Eastern Europe. As a former director general of ASEAN in the Philippines, I will focus on the relationship of ASEAN with India because in my entire diplomatic career, my life was really enriched with our participation in ASEAN. Let me now turn to my ASEAN story. Actually, I have a book called My ASEAN Story, but there is a oral history of ASEAN which is called My ASEAN Story and it's with the National University of Singapore. Women like to tell stories, so perhaps they said it's better than, well, I have my book, but to make an oral story makes a better impact on the young people who are interested to know about ASEAN. Why am I interested in ASEAN? I joined the diplomatic service in 1967 before many of you were born. I think. I was fortunate to have joined the foreign ministry as a secretary to the foreign minister who signed the ASEAN Declaration. Before that, he was our first ambassador to India, Narciso Ramos, so you see this link with India. That year, 1967, there was no computer. Foreign ministers called each other on the phone and being secretary, I womaned the phone. And these five guys from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand were calling each other because they felt a threat to the peace and security in the region. If you recall, 1967, these countries were doing well. They had just come out of the war, of course, and they were on the way to economic progress. However, Thailand, and I always say that Thailand was the real father of ASEAN, that's why your foreign minister likes me, because I said that these five men who got together were really put together by Thanat Khoman (Thailand). I recall that he was the first to call each one of them and say, look, there is a threat at our doorstep. Let's get together. And before that, there were three countries that were trying to move together as a subgroup, and the first grouping was called ASA, Association of Southeast Asia. 

It was Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Because there was a sort of issue with insurgency in the country, so they said, okay, let's help each other. But then, Philippines said, Indonesia is such a big country. We should have Indonesia in. So they had Mafilindo, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia. However, there were certain bilateral issues because of the border issues that, well, after the colonizers started to divide everybody, there were, they created border issues. And there were these latent issues that sooner or later had to come up. And the two trial, ASA and Mafelindo, sort of just dispersed and didn't move forward. But it took Thanat Khoman, who said, look, the threat is real. It's at my doorstep. Let's get together. And I recall that when they started to talk to each other, the first thing they talk about was not insurgency. They didn't talk about the threat of an ideological challenge. They talked about golf. Up to today, golf is the glue, they say, that keeps ASEAN together. 

The five gentlemen who formed, or the father of ASEAN, were keen golfers. So when I talked to Adam Malik, who was then the, he was the foreign minister of Indonesia, calls my boss, he says, dear brother, what's your handicap? People think this is very light, but if you look at the history of ASEAN, how they developed this trust and how they built this trust started with a game of golf. It made them talk to each other very freely. It made them, they like to joke around. And a lot of the critical issues are brought forward there. And after talking and playing golf, they go to the table and said, okay, what do we sign? And us, who were behind the scenes, we have to be ready and adjust to what has happened in the golf course. But people tell me, that's not true. I said, it is true, I was there. And this is really a very important thing to try to understand how ASEAN has kept together all these years. There was a lot of friendly relationship. We are such a diverse group of 10 countries. There is no other group of countries in the world that's more diverse than ASEAN. And we all had different histories, different colonizers, and yet we have stuck together through thick and thin. And I think this is to the credit, I think of our founders who started on a very informal note. And I remember going to Thailand on your chairmanship and we tried to reenact the kind of informality that was going on between the leaders of ASEAN. And I think, I believe that golf was not just a sport. It was a way where consensus was built. And you know, decision making in ASEAN is by consensus. 

The Indonesians have a way to call it, Mufakat Moshawara. You dialogue, you come to an agreement, and then you agree. And I think this is part of the reason we have survived all these years. Not just survived, but we have progressed very well. Certainly the early days of ASEAN were rather slow moving as the leaders were just getting to know each other better, developing a comfort zone. That was 1967. And in 1984, Brunei joined in, soon after its independence, and became the sixth founding member of ASEAN. So five plus one, six. And I remember I was around then and I said, now we are six. And how do we call ourselves? Oh, we're still ASEAN. I said, no, I think we're six. We can be called the Association of Six Energetic and Ambitious Nations. And it stuck. And people said, how do you think of it? I said, because we became six, we can't just think about five. And we have to put that six into the acronym. And now we're Association of Six, but now we're 10, of course. Six Energetic and Ambitious Nations. But we have dropped the six and we say we're still the Association of Energetic and Ambitious Nations. We're 10. Last week in Jakarta, I addressed young diplomats from all the ASEAN member countries who were attending a series of, we call it high-level talks. We try to get our young diplomats to get to know each other at an early stage. And what we do, we get all the former foreign ministers together and one by one share our experiences with the young, the next generation of diplomats, next generation of counselors and ambassadors. I was asked to sum up, I don't know why they always ask me to sum up, what ASEAN meant to me, having been a witness to the birth of ASEAN. In order to make life easier for our young diplomats, I said, okay, what do I tell you about ASEAN? I always think of the five-letter C, to make it easy, because we have been there for some time. And let me share them with you. 

The most important C in our history, in the evolution of ASEAN, is cooperation. The ASEAN Declaration of 1967, which established ASEAN, highlighted the institutionalization of cooperation among the member countries. It was the diplomatic way to get everyone on board, ensuring that everyone had something to gain from it. I think this was crucial, to make everyone comfortable that this is not just for you and me, it's for everyone, and that everybody has a stake in it. So in 1976, years later, the leaders of ASEAN decided to establish Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. This is very crucial in understanding where we are today and why we are what we are. To ensure, because that informality was on for so many years, but to ensure that the interstate relations in the region became legally binding, we set up the Bogor Treaty, and the Treaty of Amity, still cooperation is there. The treaty embodied the universal principles of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation among the states in Southeast Asia. The main message, I think, of the treaty, which is so much referred to today, especially when you talk about our dialogue relationship with other countries, was to address the challenges to our peace and prosperity in the region through dialogue and diplomacy. Of course, in Indonesia, Mofakat and Moshawara, but we call it normally dialogue and diplomacy. 

Functional cooperation has been the guiding principle of ASEAN from day one of its inception. It was put into operation through three main mechanisms, namely economic, of course, political, although some people like to look at it first as an economic body, and functional cooperation. The foreign ministers led the political and functional, functional meaning sectoral mechanisms which, and on the other hand, the economic and finance ministers handled economic and finance issues. The early days of ASEAN, and this is where foreign ministers played a very, very important role for many years, is because the national leaders had focused on their domestic politics while the foreign ministers had the time, the knowledge, and the linkages with foreign ministers of other countries. So ASEAN in those early days was really led by foreign ministers, and this gave us a lot of responsibility. When you speak of a lot of the ASEAN successes today are really due to the work of the foreign ministers because they were the best informed about what was going on in the world. Recently we have put together a new grouping outside of ASEAN formal grouping when we former foreign ministers decided a very informal grouping because we realized that we knew each other, we can be candid with each other, and we have the institutional memory, perhaps if you want to call it that way, in terms of where our founding fathers wanted ASEAN to go. So today we have leadership of Indonesia. We look to Indonesia as a leader in our region, and we have put together what we call the Amity Circle, which is now composed of all the former foreign ministers of ASEAN and serve as a kind of an advisory team to the new leaders in the region. 

So there is a sense of continuity among ourselves. From 1991 to 1995, I served as Director General of the National ASEAN Secretariat in the Foreign Ministry, and as such in every foreign ministry there is a National Secretariat for ASEAN, and we look after the day-to-day events that's happening in ASEAN and the participation of the country in the regional dialogues. We also took care of what we call ASEAN's dialogue partners. This is a very unique system in ASEAN where we developed when countries like Australia said, hey, we want to be part of your conversation. I said, okay, but you cannot be part of us. You can only be our dialogue partner. And someone asked, why can't you have Australia sit with you in ASEAN as a regular member of ASEAN? Very difficult to answer the question. But I'm sure you're familiar, should have flashed it, how the ASEAN symbol looks like. In the beginning, we were five. So there were five rice stalks. Then we were six, so there were six rice stalks. When we became 10, we became 10 rice stalks. 

So it was a slim and not so slim, and now we are not so very slim, but we are 10. And so when one country said, why can't we be part of ASEAN? Why can't we be a member of ASEAN? Why are we only a dialogue partner of ASEAN? And one answer was, because you do not eat rice three times a day, and all the 10 do. So perhaps it was a nice way to say who we are, to identify who we are. I thought it was a diplomatic answer. I'm delighted to tell you that during my time as Director General of ASEAN in Philippines, we opened the ties with India. India was one of our partners the same time that we opened with China. All the time, ASEAN has to balance who to have dialogue partnerships with. But both countries, China and India, became the dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992. I must say that the relationship with India grew very well, very steady, and we grew from a sectoral dialogue with China. Also, we started with certain sectors. We had science and technology exchange, educational exchange, cultural exchange. It's really the Asian way of doing things incrementally. We don't come with a full blast. We do things step by step, from a sectoral dialogue in 1992 to a full dialogue in 1995. In 2002, ASEAN relations with India was elevated to an ASEAN-India comprehensive strategic relationship. I remember there was another country that wanted this, and I won't tell you, I'm not supposed to mention countries outside of the dialogue, but we always had to balance where our interests are, and strategic relationship was a very major step from both sides to decide to go beyond what was sectoral into a more active strategic relationship, which meant more intensified cooperation in different aspects of relationship. We were talking about the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India in the room before this talk. 

It was also the ASEAN-India friendship year. And I think this year, we have a wonderful opportunity in the Philippines to strengthen that relationship between ASEAN and India. Philippines is the dialogue coordinator for India in ASEAN. Dialogue coordinator means you are in charge of being the shepherd in all the aspects of that relationship. You can initiate, you can move forward, move sideward, whatever, but it's a very important, I was dialogue coordinator for EU, the European Union, which was very difficult because you have to deal with everybody. But that way, we are able to focus on our relationship representing all of the 10 countries. It makes life easier for us. We are 10, and we have all these important dialogue partners so we sort of divide the world among ourselves, that we try to treat every dialogue partner that would like to have a partnership with ASEAN is assigned a coordinator so that the relationship has meaning and has direction. The celebration of this relationship with India meant a lot of exchanges of visits. This morning, I was delighted to meet a young woman, a young officer in our military who has come for military training in India. So this is what we mean by coming up to a strategic relationship. When you start relationship with educational exchanges, cultural exchanges, now we are exchanging military officers and the defense cooperation has been heightened. And I was happy to see that the women are getting more active in the defense cooperation, something that has been dominated by the men. When I was ambassador to Australia, I made sure that the women in uniform got as much training as the male in uniform were getting. Quite difficult, but you can always try. The exchange with India has gone beyond this. We have inter-parliamentary exchanges. We have a very strong, I heard from our ambassador, the ASEAN-India Network of Universities, the AUN. ASEAN University Network now has intensified its relationship and this is something I am very supportive of because we now have to think of the next generation of people who will carry on. And I think the AUN, the relationship between and among universities is a very useful tool to intensify relationship. Of course, we have come up to a higher level with India on maritime cooperation. I don't know, I'm sure you're familiar with our maritime issues with one of our neighbors. And India has come very, very strongly to be one of our partners to ensure that peace is kept in the South China Sea, or we call it the West Philippine Sea, as far as the Philippines is concerned. 

We also have a very strong framework agreement on comprehensive economic cooperation. Tomorrow, we have 20 women entrepreneurs coming to India to meet with their counterparts. And I think that's, I believe in maintaining people-to-people exchange at different levels, whether it's military officers, whether it's entrepreneurs or singers or whatever, especially universities. And this is one way to really strengthen a relationship and to think of the future of that relationship. 

The second C is charter. I think it took us so many years before we decided to have a charter of ASEAN. We always talked about agreements and MOUs and MOAs, but a charter was very important in 2008. Can you imagine, from 1967 only in 2008 did we decide to have a charter to give ASEAN a legal and an institutional framework. And of course, it also made us strengthen our desire to integrate as ASEAN. During my days, integration was not acceptable in our vocabulary. Integration means a political commitment. That's what the EU had from the very beginning. ASEAN didn't have. It was only in 1992 when we decided to have an ASEAN free trade area that the word integration was accepted in our vocabulary. So you see how slow moving we are. But to me, it's part of the reason we have kept this strong relationship as far as our relationship among the 10 countries is concerned. 

So you have cooperation, you have charter. Now, the sense of community. For many years, we talk about ASEAN community, but we never spelled it with a big C. It was always a small C, because again, a big C meant political commitment. Like integration, the idea of an ASEAN community with a big C took many years to evolve. This was spurred by several crisis that we had to face. The financial crisis drove us to put together our act in terms of helping each other through the financial crisis. Of course, the crisis of SARS, other health issues like COVID made us really integrate further and to graduate from letter c to big letter C. And this was really the framework when we talked about establishing the ASEAN big C, and we devised a framework within which to achieve what we call a dynamic, cohesive, resilient, and integrated ASEAN. This was very crucial in the evolution of ASEAN. 

The next C is connectivity. If you look at the map, you see how you have maritime ASEAN, which consists of the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, of course and part of Vietnam. Then you have the continental ASEAN which are the ASEAN members in the continent. How to put this together to work closely was a big challenge and so we devised what we call the ASEAN connectivity. We have a master plan and it's supposed to be finished or be highlighted in 2025 next year. It meant building physical connectivity in terms of rail, air, no visa, all these things that make a community work together to ensure that we are able to face competition. This is a very important incentive when you look around the world how ASEAN could be competitive in the world market, in tourism, etc. We had to stress on the physical institutional and people-to-people connectivity in terms of our implementing what we wanted to do under our charter which is more visible integration of ASEAN. 

Fifth C is centrality. This is a very sensitive issue because it is due to global challenges and due to global competition. ASEAN centrality has become a very useful reference for ASEAN. Whatever we do with other countries, we have to think of our role as the center of the negotiations. For example, Article 1 of the ASEAN Charter defines centrality as one of the purposes of ASEAN to maintain the centrality and proactive role of ASEAN as the primary driving force in our relationship with other countries in terms of our cooperation with other countries and with our external partners in a regional architecture that is, of course, we call it an open, transparent, and inclusive. But you will henceforth hear a lot about ASEAN centrality when we deal especially with our dialogue partner countries and now with all the new forms of cooperation in ARF, ASEAN Regional Forum, ADMM, et cetera, the idea and sense of ASEAN centrality has to be there. To my mind, one of the most successful mechanisms in ASEAN is what we call the establishment of relationship with global community like China, ASEAN. I remember the early days in 1992 when I was DG of ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea, they were not really talking to each other, so we decided they are our major partners in the region, let's get them together, and they all wanted to be our dialogue partners. So up to today, when you say ASEAN plus three, they are ASEAN 10 plus China, Japan, and Korea, and it has been a very important tool to keep the peace in the region. And I think that to me, ASEAN has gone this far because of the way we have been managing our dialogue relationship with these countries, not only with the three countries, but with the rest of the region like Australia, New Zealand, of course, India, and Russia, Canada. 

And this has, to me, become a very important aspect in terms of ASEAN’s role on the global scene, that we are a partner of most countries in the world. We have dialogues, and so when we have summits, everybody comes to us, and we also want to make sure that ASEAN centrality is important in this dialogue relationship. I find, however, today, it's not all easy in the house, in the home, ASEAN. I find ASEAN unity and centrality being challenged, being challenged perhaps internally or outside forces. While we generally agree on the principles of peaceful resolution of disputes, the primacy of international law, and the applicability of the United Nations Conventions, there are still those who are wary about calling out infringements on these basic principles. I've been taken to task for this, but I think that when we started off as ASEAN, we were one voice et cetera, but as days and issues arose, at least for the Philippines, we strictly believe in the rule of law, and whatever issues we have with our neighbors, we bring to the international court, because we believe that this is the only way, the only peaceful way you can resolve such issues. 

Now let me turn to the women agenda of ASEAN. I must admit that the gender agenda came later late in ASEAN, more than two decades before we really talked seriously about women and gender. I always said ASEAN women was an afterthought, but anyway, I'm reassured that it's not. The first time ASEAN women leaders met was in 1981. Can you imagine? From 1967, only in 1981 did they talk about gender. And to identify areas, we had Women Leaders Network, where collective action could be taken to address challenges to the gender agenda. And then we organized the ASEAN Committee on Women, and then we organized the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children. However, the Philippines has always taken a very active role in the gender agenda. In the 1970s, early 70s, the Philippines was rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, CSW. The Philippine ambassador was a rapporteur, and I was her assistant. It was 1972. We were tasked to present the first draft of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It was an uphill battle, but we moved on, and it was very interesting that when we submitted our draft, in fact, there is a recent article in the UN magazine who wrote the CEDAW, and it says, the Philippines submitted the first initial draft. And our draft was just plain, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. And over the years, it became all forms of discrimination against women. It took us years to lobby. 

Most of my life in Geneva was to go to New York and lobby. And I was very surprised that our first partner in moving the draft was Russia and Romania. And I said, where's everybody, you know? But as it moved on, and Finland, sorry, Finland. Anyway, she was fantastic because she was already in the UN. And she helped a lot promote the convention until, of course, I think, did everybody here ratify the convention? I hope so. Anyway, I think it's, of course, called today the Bill of Rights for Women. And it has been ratified by…... I'm keeping tab. It's ratified by 183 countries. The Philippines, of course, being the initial author, of course, it has undergone transformation. We were the first country to ratify in the region. We had to show. We had to show that we believed in what we initiated. In 2017, when we chaired ASEAN, I worked on a study with the company I'm working now, Ernst & Young. We came up with a study called, can ASEAN move forward if the women are left behind? So we had to do a dashboard study of where the women are in ASEAN. The study showed that despite incredible diversity in culture and development level across Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, Vietnam, much has been achieved in our region through public legislation. 

I think most of us have national legislations. In the Philippines, we have what you call the Magna Carta of Women, which will implement and monitor the implementation of CEDAW. So it's not just a convention. We have to be able to monitor whether we are moving in accordance with a convention that we ratified. Much has been achieved through public legislation and efforts by the private sector and civil society, and sometimes by peer pressure. Because we say, Thailand is doing well, let's do something like Thailand. Or Indonesia is doing better, so we say, let's do something like Indonesia. And I believe that we are moving quite well in this direction and I can be proud of the record of ASEAN in this implementation of CEDAW. The study which we made underscored that advancements in the socioeconomic standing of women and youth have indeed transformed societies and communities across ASEAN and strengthened their resilience. We have done a study, a dashboard study, and we're quite happy to have it. And just last month, now we are moving into women in peace and security. Last month, we organized a forum, I think it was the first forum of women ambassadors in ASEAN on the topic of peace and security in the region. And we had 45 women ambassadors from the region and I was quite pleased to see that out of the 45 women ambassadors, 10 were Filipino women. And I am quite proud that when I chaired the Security Council in 2004, Kofi Annan said, you know, you remind me of these wonderful women ambassadors you have in China, in the UN, in WTO. 

Why don't you write about them? So I said, okay. Then I realized, I'm glad I did, I found out that from 1958 when we sent our first woman ambassador up to 2018 when I wrote the book, we had 90 women ambassadors. And the second volume, which I will give to you later, from 1958 to the present, we have 117 women ambassadors. So I went to my ASEAN neighbors and said, hey, how many do you have? And Malaysia said, oh, I have a lot. How many? Give me the names. Where are they assigned? She gave me 50. I said, oh, you're not even half of my number. Brunei has 23, Singapore has had 21. I'm waiting for Thailand, I was promised their numbers. But I think we can be proud of our 117 women career ambassadors of Philippines from 1958 to the present. Because I did that book, the ambassador, the woman ambassador, Romanian ambassador in Manila said, oh, I'll do a similar book. So she did a similar book and she said, oh my gosh, we are so few. Nevermind, I'll have it only in Romanian so you would know about it. Anyway, she has that book and Hungary is working on her book and Prague is working on her book and well we're going to exchange, we'll exchange books and I'm waiting for other countries to give me their numerical number at least and it's interesting to find out where women are normally assigned. In the Philippines and in ASEAN I realized we send them everywhere. We've sent women ambassador to Islamic countries, we have sent women ambassadors to the Vatican, so I think this is, I mean it's good to see how we all see the world. Should we send a woman here or there? We talk a lot about women, agenda, I said come on, I want figures, I want to know where your women are being sent. 

Anyway, I hope I'll come to my third volume and talk about the other women in the other parts of the world. In October, the Philippines will chair a very interesting conference on women, peace and security, October 28 to the 30th of October because we believe that women have a very special role to play in terms of peace and security. We are very keen on this because for the longest time we had a very big issue in the southern part of the Philippines and there has been a lot of conflict. It's a conflict-ridden place between the Muslim community, the Christian community, the indigenous community. For more than 50 years there's been trouble and finally a few years ago, government decided why can't we solve this? So they sent a woman negotiator and she ended up with a peace agreement, finally. And I asked her, how did you do it? And she said, I listened. I think that's very important that perhaps women have a capacity and patience to listen because if you come to a negotiating table with your instructions and not prepared to listen to the other side, you will never get to an agreement. Today she is a consultant of the United Nations for peace negotiations because if you want her name, she's Professor Miriam Coronel. She is now a consultant of the UN for peace negotiations. But she's still saying that she's alone. And she wished that other women could be part of this. And we are now working on an agreement with Colombia because they face a similar issue with FARC, et cetera. And this is part of our recent negotiations to share our experience in negotiating for peace. I would like to perhaps conclude by saying that certainly women, when given the opportunity, make peace negotiators. What used to be considered negative characteristics of women are actually what make them more effective. People used to say, oh, why should I send a woman? She's so emotional. You need emotions when you negotiate. You'll be able to read emotions when you negotiate. The ability to listen, the ability to read body language. And more easily, we have a greater capacity to find solutions. This is not original. This is from the book, The Female Brain. The female brain has been studied, and this seems to be the characteristics why women make good negotiators. 

Coming back to India, I think one of the women that has really influenced my life as a diplomat was meeting and escorting a terrific woman president, the first woman president of the UN General Assembly, Madam Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. And I said, why am I being assigned to her? Someone said, you can see eye to eye (referring to their short height). And so I said, Madam, I'm assigned to you because we see eye to eye. She said, my dear, size doesn't matter. Character and determination, too. That's my lesson from Vijaya Pandit. Anyway, in Dharamsala, I learned the Dalai Lama's strong commitment to serve others, and he has spoken to us very clearly, repeating a prayer, and I thought I'd share this with you, of the 8th century monk called Shantideva. He said, this was my message from the Dalai Lama, for people who render service. For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then, may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world. That's the Dalai Lama. And I would like to repeat what Madam Lakshmi said when we were talking. I said, how long have you been in the diplomatic service? She said, oh, I've been there for some time. And she said, I'm also guided by what an Indian leader said, Mahatma Gandhi. He said that the best way of finding yourself is to give yourself in the service of others. So I thought these two thoughts, this mindset of my experience of India today has come together, and I want to thank you for this opportunity to be able to share it. And by the way, today, Indian women celebrate Har Talika Teej Day. Do you know what that is? Do you know what it means? Can you tell them? It's a very special day. I'm informed that it is to celebrate the divine union of Shiva and Parvati, which reflects the aspiration of women for marital bliss and prosperity. Thank you. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: I didn't know that, I just heard about it. Thank you, madam. Thank you very much for your talk. It was very interesting and very engrossing. You have shared with us in detail the formation and the evolution of ASEAN, your views about it, and your experiences, and about India and ASEAN's relationship, and what has been Philippines' contribution to India and ASEAN's relationship. So it is very enlightening to hear what you have said from your own personal experiences. On the agenda of women, peace, and security, ma'am, I would like to say that the intellectual economy of the WPS agenda is heavily populated by voices from Global North. They are here with us today, so it's heavily populated by them. And yours is a very important voice from the Global South. And it has to present our perspective. And it has to bring forth our unique view from our own respective regions. With your permission, I would like to open the floor for observations, comments, or questions. You're welcome. 

Participant:  Yes. It was a very inspiring story, as you presented. Thank you so much. I would like to take this opportunity to ask if you have maybe an advice for us. You, from your great experience in diplomacy, for us women diplomats, if you would have an advice for us. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Oh, dear. Be yourself. Be authentic. Because I have to admit, I was never conscious that I was a woman when I was doing my work. I took the challenge because the work had to be done. And perhaps my work spoke for itself. And this is what I always try. Our young diplomats, be yourself, but always maintain your credibility. Because if you're not credible, you lose your effectivity as a diplomat. If you don't know, say so. If you know, share it. But I think, yeah, it was not until I decided to get married that it dawned on me that I was a woman, because in our foreign service, before my time, only the men were allowed to marry foreign women and stay in the service. The women, like us, had to resign. And I thought, my gosh, I'm working on CEDAW. I'm not going to be permitted to allow, to be allowed to marry a man I wanted to marry. So I had to fight it out. And I did my legal brief. And I said, I will wait till CEDAW is ratified. And if it's ratified, I told my foreign ministry, if you don't give me my permission to marry and stay in the service, I will take you to the UN as a trial case for CEDAW. The important thing is to know your weapons. I think for women, you must be aware that there is such a weapon that you can use. So I think that's my own experience. And if you want to Google it, there's a nice story. Love in the time of discrimination. It's all my colleagues who decide to marry foreign men, had to resign. And I had to fight it out. And I said, you know, what is right is right. What is wrong is wrong. Then I had Sado as my weapon. So you must know the Sado very well. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: You take the next question, yes. 

Participant:  Yes. Thank you so much for a very uplifting as well as entertaining talk. I did want to ask you, you would not have been admitted to that all-male golf club. But however, that's not where I wanted to go. 

Delia Domingo Albert: I play golf, I have a very good handicap. 

Participant:  Ah, okay, well, then. I was forced to. 

Delia Domingo Albert: In 1992, President Corey Aquino was our president. And a very crucial issue was AFTA, ASEAN Free Trade Area. And the men, of course, Sentosa, beautiful golf course in Singapore. All the men said, okay, let's talk about it in the golf course. 

Participant:  Well, it was much more in terms of as a light comment, though I do know how difficult it is to break into the men's clubs, irrespective of whether you're in diplomacy, academia, or other areas. But however, the question I wanted to ask you was a much more ASEAN-related one, and one which does bring in the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, and that is to do with Myanmar. The framework that ASEAN has advanced in terms of managing the Myanmar crisis has proved to be inadequate. What is, in fact, ASEAN doing? What do you, as an advisor, part of that advisory group, suggesting? It's also that this is a test case in terms of this has involved huge conflict-related sexual atrocities, and it's also thrown up a huge group of young women who are emerging as leaders of the resistance movement. So what is ASEAN's position? How is it going to deal with the evolving crisis, which has, as I'm suggesting, proved that what the earlier formula hasn't worked? 

Delia Domingo Albert: Yeah, this is, you're right, this is a test case for ASEAN, whether they can be effective in being able to reach a situation where peace can be brought together again. I remember when I was foreign minister, I think I was the only foreign minister that was invited several times to Myanmar, because I did, they call it the ASEAN way of doing things. I did not attack them, but I sort of engaged talking with women. In fact, one we did was to award one of the women leaders, et cetera. And then I remember that we had two or three dialogues. I was part of that, and then after I retired, the problem wasn't there. Aung San Suu Kyi was still there. And the military came. And ASEAN decided, all right, let's have a five-point peace, steps towards peace in Myanmar. And this was during the chairmanship of Indonesia. And I remember in Indonesia, I was there for the summit, we did make quite a bit of a compromise. They agreed to the five points, but when it came to implementing the five points, they were not prepared. The UN came into the picture, Nolene Heyer, wonderful woman. I said, Nolene, what are you going to do? And she said, well, we are all polite to each other, but nothing is changed. So how do you make a change? So I said, well, keep talking. I think Thailand had a formula of engaging what you call a troika. A troika in ASEAN means the chair, the past chair, and the future chair, so that there is not everybody talking. When 10 people come to you and talk to you, the reaction is, wait a minute, I'm one and you're nine. And the latest move now is to get a troika together and not just one envoy. 

With a troika, perhaps, perhaps, the government will open up. I don't know of a way. We're trying every means to do it. We have conversations with Myanmar community in Singapore because of our ex-foreign ministers group, but even they cannot even go in because they're threatened, and it's a matter of life and death for them, and we don't want them harmed either. We try, during my time in ASEAN, before Myanmar was accepted into ASEAN, we helped each other directly by, I had five young Myanmar diplomats trained with me, for example. And I'm so happy that one of them became the ambassador to New York, who has refused to, if you remember, he refused to leave his position in the UN (when the military took over), and his life was threatened. I don't know if you are following that. And I was very proud that he trained under us. The second was ambassador to Brussels, who has a difficult time as well. But I don't know, I have no formula. We tried the troika this time. The troika will be Malaysia, Indonesia, and Laos. So we'll see if they will be able to talk. But I know that Thailand, having such a crucial border, has been engaging them with talks. But the complications there are, you have to talk to the different minority tribes. It's not just getting one voice. It's not one voice. There's a Kachin, there's a Karen. And how do you get them all? While the Kachins are winning, perhaps, we just saw that they have run, overrun some of the military outposts. The Karens, not as strong. And it's bigger than we think it is. You have to consider how large a country Myanmar is. Although I think it could be one of the greatest countries in ASEAN, if only there was peace and reconciliation among the different tribes. We're trying. You have the UN envoy, you have the ASEAN envoy. Now we are enlarging the ASEAN team to have the present, past, and future chairs to deal with it. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: We'll take the next question. We'll take two questions. Yes, and then you can ask. 

Participant:  Thank you, that was a very interesting story. Are you aware that we have in our midst, really do we have in our midst a public leader and a diplomat who will speak so candidly? So I'll take this opportunity to ask you an old question, which has been asked frequently, but rarely has it been answered convincingly. And that is, related to women, peace, and security, that on one hand, when we seek to talk about essential women qualities like listening, creating a community. And yet, simultaneously, we are seeking to include women, fight for spaces for women in institutions we critique. One is that of the military. So how do we, as public leaders, as academics, deal with this particular dilemma? Because this is the very institution that we critique. Because are we sending women there to be militarized? Or are we hoping that the military itself will be feminized by it? 

Delia Domingo Albert: The spokesman, the spokeswoman of the military in the Philippines is a woman. And I think this was a very important measure that was taken by, I mean, I can't speak of other military institutions. Because every military institution, some are in government, some are all different. But what we have done when we were all discussing about gender equality, et cetera, women in peace and security, we have been very active in engaging women in other professions and women in uniform. We call them the women in uniform. 

To the point that the spokesperson of the military in the Philippines today is a woman. And she has come into the conversation very prominently in being able to engage women in all aspects that the peace and security agenda is being served. I don't know how other countries treat the military. But this is one way we've done it. We've engaged the women in, we have a dialogue of business and professional women. And then we have women in uniform to get everybody have a common idea of how we would complement each other in our various professions. I don't know how it would be with other societies. But I would like to think that the Philippines perhaps is, well, we were number six in the World Economic Forum in gender equality. Unfortunately, we dropped down when we had a misogynist president. Leadership is very important. And we're not afraid to say he's misogynist because he was. 

And from number six, we went to number 12, to number 16, and number, you know, I remember chairing a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Berlin when we were number six because we were the only Asian country on the top 10. So I said, oh my gosh, we have a responsibility here. And we were all the Scandinavian countries, of course. New Zealand is always there. And then we were number six. So I said, wow. But that dropped when we had a president who had only one minister in his cabinet. When I was in cabinet, we were 50-50. So that put us in the number six ranking in 2006. So I don't know how it is. But I think we can all learn from each other's experiences. If we open dialogues, that we learn how others are doing it. And we still, right now, we are suffering from number 20-something. So I'm very ashamed of it. But we've lost our position as one of the top 10. But we'll get back there somehow. I'm a cockeyed optimist. And we just keep on. But I know in some societies, it's nearly impossible to get up there. I have heard countries, I've known countries with a feminist foreign policy. We do not have a feminist foreign policy. We have a gender lens in our foreign policy, perhaps. But we, like you, I admire what you've done in your, do they know about it? 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Yes. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Anyway, India is working on it. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Both of them do know, I suppose. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Yeah. But I don't know. Perhaps when Pamela Harris wins, might make a dent somewhere. I just heard today that it's going to be a tough fight. Talking to Indian women, and they're all cheering for Pamela Harris. Leadership counts when you talk about gender equality. I believe that leadership in a country counts when you talk about gender equality, gender in peace, and whatever. And sometimes somebody said, you must know the wife. Perhaps it also helps. Anyway. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: We'll take the last question now. Yes. Yeah, please. 

Participant:  Thank you very much for your very interesting presentation. I wanted to ask about Papua New Guinea, which is having an observer status in ASEAN. But the way the dialogue partners are dealing within an organization and the observer status countries are dealt, it's quite different. And this Papua New Guinea is well-known for its gender-based violence all over the world. I know Papua New Guinea, I think it's more or less. No, Papua New Guinea, we were having this studies on Papua New Guinea. In fact, I'm not able to send my students over there for the studies on gender-related issues. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: I think it's more or less. 

Participant:  Yeah, but Papua New Guinea has a congruity issue with Indonesia, right? Okay. It's an observer status with ASEAN, Papua New Guinea. It's Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste is also an observer. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: But you can ask about Papua New Guinea, are you studying Papua New Guinea at the University? 

Participant:  Yes, I wanted to ask how this ASEAN is looking at gender violence in the remote or micro-states of the Pacific Islands, which is also a part of this whole violence, gender-based violence in the smaller countries. 

Delia Domingo Albert: I would think that perhaps, I don't think we have a policy on gender issues outside of ASEAN, except the global standards of the United Nations. It's so far as when we say ASEAN Committee on Gender, et cetera, it means within the 10 ASEAN member countries. What we do does not extend to other places outside, because we don't have that influence outside of the 10 member countries of ASEAN. In fact, last month in the meeting on peace and security, we invited already about three or four women ambassadors from Timor-Leste. Their ambassador to Geneva is a woman, their ambassador to, I think even Germany, I'm not sure, but very prominent women ambassadors of Timor-Leste. 

I do not, I'm not aware of ASEAN-based activity in terms of countries outside ASEAN, because they are not part of that grouping. Although we do support UN Women, we are very active in UN Women. In fact, when UN Women was set up, we nominated Ban Ki-moon as Woman of the Year, because he opened UN Women. And yeah, I nominated him because we were colleagues in the ASEAN Plus Three. And when he instituted the UN Women's Office. I said, well, we should also recognize the men who do things for the women. So I nominated him and he became Woman of the Year for the Global Summit of Women. And I saw him two months ago and he said, my favorite title is being Woman of the Year. I said, we should have more Women of the Year titles for men, so they become more conscious. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: In fact, we should develop strategies to include men as advocates for women's causes. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Actually, I'm part of the Global Summit of Women. We are 35 years old. But these are women in business, CEOs, et cetera. And we always, always, when we meet, there's a panel of male CEOs. And we target them and ask, what are you doing about the women in your companies? And I tell you, it makes some impact because it sensitizes them that there are these real concerns. And every year, we have that. And it's quite fun because we make fun of them. And that's where they get the message. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Thank you very much. That brings us to the end of the interaction. Thank you all for your participation. I just want to say one thing on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Next year, the WPS agenda at UN will complete 25 years because the UNSCR 1325 is from 2000. So that provides us with an occasion to give a further impetus to not only women in peace operations, but to the broader agenda of violation of human rights of women, and not only in conflict situations, but things like verbal and mental violence, things like prostitution, trafficking in women, connected to their human security. So I hope the broader agenda gets touched along with the limited agenda that is there right now in the UN Security Council dealing just with women in peace operations and in conflict situations. And there also, the focus is more on sexual violence. It's not on other forms of violence. But with those words, we can continue our interaction over tea in the foyer outside. Please join us. And before that, ma'am, I would like to present you with a small token of our appreciation for all the time that you have given us today. 

Delia Domingo Albert: What is it, what is it best? 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: It's Indian tea. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Oh, wonderful. Thank you. It keeps me healthy. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: And these are books. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Thank you. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: And we have the author here. Reena Marwah, you're here. Yeah. So she has written this book. She's the author. ICWA had commissioned this book on India-Philippines relations. 

Delia Domingo Albert: This is wonderful. Thank you so much. 
 
Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Yeah. And she has done very good work. 

Delia Domingo Albert: This is a 75-year relationship. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: This is the Council's first book on Philippines. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Your second book would be Women in Diplomacy. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Come, Reena. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Thank you so much. Thank you. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Thank you. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Thank you. It's a challenge to our ambassador. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: And there are two more books that I want to present which the Council had published. One is on Women in Power, Gender Within International Relations and Diplomacy. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Wonderful. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: And the other one is A Gender-Sensitive Indian Foreign Policy. 

Delia Domingo Albert: That's what I was thinking of. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Yes. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Wonderful. Thank you so much. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: Thank you. Thank you very much. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Well, may I present to you? Well, it's a very modest thing that it's only volume one. There are three volumes. And it's taken, it's quoted from what Kofi Annan told me about the remarkable ambassadors in our foreign service. So second book on the Philippines. 

Nutan Kapoor Mahawar: OK. Thank you so much. Thank you. 

Delia Domingo Albert: Thank you. Wow, this is great. Well, in case you are interested in the Conference on Women, Peace, and Security, I think the ambassador will send you a message about it, because I think it's something that may interest you. It will be in Manila in October 28 to 30. And just an afterthought, perhaps this is not for me, but for others.

*****