In Conversation with Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.

Join us for a conversation with Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., who was appointed as Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018. Lowy Institute Southeast Asia Program Director Ben Bland will speak to Secretary Locsin about a range of issues including the impact of US-China competition on the region, the challenges of managing COVID-19 in a large, globally connected nation, and the trajectory of Australia-Philippines relations. 

Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. is a lawyer by profession and a journalist by trade. He holds a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, and was previously publisher, editorial writer, and co-anchor at several leading Philippine media organisations. He had a brief stint as a lecturer at the US National Defense College. In government, he previously served as legal counsel and speechwriter to President Corazon Aquino, and speechwriter to Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was also elected to the Philippine House of Representatives from 2001 to 2010. 

Ben Bland is the Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia and Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow. He was previously an award-winning foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Jakarta, Hanoi and Hong Kong.