The Philippines is urging countries in the region to give legal bite to a nonbinding agreement aimed at preventing conflicts over contested areas in the South China Sea.
The Philippines adopted the accord, known as the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, in 2002, along with the other ASEAN members and China.
However, officials have repeatedly questioned whether the nonbinding agreement was strong enough to deter claimants from expanding their presence in contested seas and islands.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said over the weekend that he discussed the possibility of strengthening the accord with his ASEAN counterparts on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, where the group is holding its annual summit.
"We want a more legally binding document," Romulo told a news conference.
Romulo didn't say what response he received from the other ministers. The 2002 declaration was adopted as a stopgap measure ahead of a stronger pact, but fierce differences between the claimants have blocked various attempts to strengthen the accord.
Romulo suggested claimant countries also pursue more confidence-boosting steps and joint efforts to explore and develop the region's resources.
"While we have prevented conflict and built cooperation in the South China Sea, much remains to be done and we must sustain our efforts," he said in a separate written statement.
The disputed territories include the Spratly Islands, claimed in whole or in part by four ASEAN members -- Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam -- plus China and Taiwan.
Separately, the Philippines and China have contesting claims to Scarborough Shoal, and China and Vietnam have a dispute over the Paracel Islands.
China and Vietnam, which have both built permanent structures in the Spratlys, clashed over the island group in 1988 and 1992. Other countries have also engaged in low-level skirmishes over their claims.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
RSS