The press release vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Days after the Philippines announced its intent to urge three small nations – Tonga, Bhutan and Nepal – to ratify a global treaty banning nuclear tests, the statement was quietly scrubbed from the government’s website. The sudden reversal left experts wondering: was it a sign of diplomatic overreach, or a calculated retreat?
The retracted statement described a meeting on March 18 between Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Robert Floyd, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, during which Marcos reportedly pledged to persuade the three countries, saying: “We’ll do our best. We are familiar with the process.”