President Marcos and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized the need for "middle powers" to strengthen their partnerships amid global volatility.

During a joint press conference following their bilateral meeting in Vancouver, Canada, on Friday, July 3, Marcos and Carney agreed that middle powers like the Philippines and Canada should strengthen their bilateral ties and enhance multilateral cooperation to withstand global uncertainties better.

"Well, the Philippines and Canada are in full agreement about the necessity of these bilateral and multilateral agreements that we have spoken about," Marcos said.

"With the volatility in the geopolitical world in the past years, I think it is a necessary development, not only for Canada and the Philippines, but for other like-minded countries who continue to believe in international law and a rules-based international system," he added.

The President underscored that changes in the future could be unexpected and hard to predict. Thus, stronger bilateral and multilateral exchanges would help them face uncertainties "from a much larger base."

"It is very, very clear, I think, to most countries and the leaders of those countries that these bilateral and multilateral exchanges and alliances and partnerships become necessary, so that when we face the volatility that I spoke about, that we are facing it from a much larger base, as it were, which will bring us hopefully the stability and will give us the options to adjust," Marcos said.

Carney, meanwhile, emphasized that it is also important for middle powers to strengthen themselves to strengthen the system.

He likewise cited the need to work with world superpowers like the United States and China.

"All of those are important, and the responsibility of middle powers — I'll speak for Canada — is to reinforce the rules-based order, update it where possible, to build alliances, partnerships in areas where like-minded countries can cooperate, because that strengthens ourselves, but it also strengthens the system. And yes, cooperate with the hegemons wherever possible to reinforce the first two," Carney said.

The Prime Minister also underscored that groupings such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are effective in commercial and other areas.

"It's important that we look for areas together. We've had some of these discussions on topical issues, whether it's cybersecurity, other aspects, where new partnerships can be formed," he said.

Marcos also pointed out the need to balance stability and agility amid global uncertainties.

"We have two differing forces that we have to balance here. One is to be stable, and at the same time, we have to be agile. And the way to do that is to have these firm partnerships and firm agreements between countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, but at the same time to keep the communications between all our partners very, very active," Marcos said.

"In that way, we can move together, and we can react together, and again, it will bring us, it will give us a stronger base to work from to maintain that stability, to maintain the peace. And this is all that we are working for, and I believe, I continue to believe, that this is the right direction to take," he added.