Two weeks after agreeing with his counterpart in Beijing “not to let the maritime disputes affect the broader picture of friendship and cooperation between the two countries" Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said at a regional security forum in Indonesia Saturday that China’s “9-dash line claim over the entire South China Sea…has no validity under international law."
“If Philippine sovereign rights can be denigrated by this baseless claim, many countries should begin to contemplate the potential threat to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea," del Rosario said at the 18th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Bali.
The DFA chief informed the ARF that the Philippines “suffered at least seven (7) aggressive intrusions since late February into where we maintain we have sovereign rights. These intrusions happened within eighty-five nautical miles from the nearest Philippine island of Palawan and nearly six hundred nautical miles from the nearest coast of China."
The Philippines protested the intrusions but del Rosario said the response it got from China “was a denial that no such intrusions occurred because of China’s 9-dash line claim over the entire South China Sea."
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and del Rosario met in Beijing during the latter's official visit from July 7 - 9.
Both Ministers "reaffirmed their commitments to respect and abide by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by China and the ASEAN member countries in 2002," according to their joint statement on July 8.
Addressing top diplomats of ASEAN and its dialogue partners, which includes China and the United States, del Rosario reiterated the “preventive diplomacy solution" the ARF has pushed for.
Del Rosario said the preventive diplomacy approach could be implemented “through a process of segregating the disputed features from the non-disputed waters."
“In the alternative, the Parties may wish to consider subjecting the 9-dash line to validation in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," del Rosario added. Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan also have claims on the Spratly Islands, some of which the Philippines refers to as the Kalayaan Island Group.
The DFA Secretary explained that the first option of a segregation process “will have to be vetted by the ASEAN maritime legal experts scheduled to meet in September in Manila."
Del Rosario concluded his remarks at the ARF “exchange of views" by saying stressing that “a rules-based approach is the only legitimate way in addressing disputes in the South China Sea." — TJD
