President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte have agreed to uphold international rules-based order in the pursuit of peace and security, the Palace said on Saturday.

According to a news release by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), both leaders held a bilateral meeting on Friday on the sidelines of the President’s working visit to Singapore.

Marcos emphasized the importance of a rules-based international order, especially amid the challenges that both nations face with their respective neighbors.

The Philippines and China are at odds over the West Philippine Sea, while Lithuania is the same with Russia.

“Over a hundred of years that we have been in contact in informal trade that has been going on, it is still not balanced… All we want really is the promotion of peace and the national interest,” the President told Prime Minister Šimonyte. “I don’t work for Beijing, I don’t work for Washington, I don’t work for Moscow. I work for Manila. I work for the Philippines and that’s what I need to promote.”

“And the only way that we can navigate through all of these is to find ourself, plant ourself very clearly within international law, and within the rules-based order, within the agreements that most nations are made, with one another when it comes to the resolution of these kind of differences,” he added.

The President noted that some countries have made alliances with other countries to provide a stronger voice in support of the law and sovereignty.

“And that we promote peace. That is what we are trying to promote,” he said.

Šimonyte, in response, said she fully supported Marcos’ statement.

“Absolutely. I think that, you know, small states matter. That will be my message tomorrow on the panel but not only small states matter, international law matter because this is a safety network for small states,” she said.

Marcos said the world has changed in a way that “you can no longer isolate” the effects of the Ukraine-Russia war around the world.

“It is almost impossible but now it is now regional issues, they eventually impact the unexpected places which are very, very far away,” he said, noting that the effects of the war are very well felt.

Marcos arrived in Manila on Saturday from his first state visit to Brunei Darussalam and his working visit to Singapore, where he made history by being the first Philippine president to deliver a keynote message at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue. (PNA)