China will be the “loser” if it does not recognize an international court’s ruling against its territorial claims in the South China Sea, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Perfecto Yasay said yesterday.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague infuriated China last month when it ruled that China had no historical title over the South China Sea and it had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights.
China has ignored the ruling that none of its claims in the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) entitled it to a 200 nautical mile (370.4km) exclusive economic zone. Its construction work on reefs there has alarmed other claimants, including Taiwan.
“We are trying to make China understand especially when the dust settles that unless they respect and recognize the arbitral tribunal, they will be the losers at the end of that day on this matter,” Yasay told a Philippine congressional hearing.
Prior to starting bilateral talks, the Philippines plans to seal a deal for China to allow Filipino fishermen to access the resource-rich waters, Yasay said.
China seized Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in 2012, denying Philippine fishermen access, one of the factors that prompted Manila to seek arbitration.
“When we start formal negotiations or bilateral engagements with China, we will have to do it within the context of the arbitral decision. There are no buts or ifs insofar as our policy on this matter is concerned,” Yasay said.
In related news, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang yesterday said there would be no winners in any armed conflict sparked by territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Quang, who is on a state visit to Singapore, told a forum that recent developments there were threatening regional security.
The Vietnamese leader did not mention any country but there is growing unease over China’s actions.
“The South China Sea, located at the heart of Southeast Asia, not only brings about many important benefits to nations in the region but it is also a vital route to maritime and air transport of the world,” Quang said. “Recent worrying developments” there “have had a negative impact on the security environment of the region, especially maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight.”
“Should we allow instability to take place, especially in the case of armed conflicts, there will be neither winners or losers but rather all will lose,” he said.
The Vietnamese leader was speaking to diplomats, academics and students at a forum organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies’ Yusof Ishak Institute.
Taiwan and four Southeast Asian states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — have competing claims in the sea.
Vietnam has been among the most vocal critics of China’s blanket territorial claims. In 2014 China moved a controversial oil rig into contested territory, prompting riots in Vietnam.
The sea row has also driven a wedge between members of ASEAN, which has failed to forge a unified front against Beijing’s actions.
Additional reporting by AFP
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion