Malaysia is fully committed and calls on all parties to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in its entirety.
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On January 22, 2013, the Philippines filed a lawsuit with the PCA against China’s claims to sovereign right, jurisdiction and historic rights over waters within the nine-dash line, which run counter to the 1982 UNCLOS and exceed the limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the convention.
The statement was the strongest response from the Philippines to Tuesday’s verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague declaring that China’s claims to the resource-rich and strategically vital South China Sea had no legal basis.
The Philippines’ unilateral initiation of arbitration on the South China Sea dispute risks undermining the peace and stability of ASEAN, a Chinese expert has said.
Its president Tan Yew Sing commented that MCCC disagreed with the ruling, adding that they believed that “sovereignty claims should be put aside to pave way for joint development of the islands and territorial waters by all claimant countries”.
“I want to stress that if any one wants to take any provocative action against China’s security interest based on the award China will take a decisive response”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters.
The Philippines, which launched the legal challenge, had initially refrained from asking China to abide by the ruling – this followed President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to achieve a “soft landing” with the country’s much more powerful Asian neighbour.
He broke his silence on the issue late on Thursday at a private function and said he wanted dialogue with China and to send former President Fidel Ramos to Beijing to break the ice. “To ignore it would be a serious global transgression”, she said.
In 2014, China launched massive island-building efforts in the Nansha – or Spratly – Islands, buttressing claims to the territory.
China, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, has said the summit is “not a suitable place to discuss” the issue.
China on Wednesday also raised the prospect of confrontation in the sea, and threatened to introduce an air defence zone over the sea that would give its military authority over foreign aircraft.
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Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that ahead of the ruling he had spoken to Carter, who he said told him China had assured the United States it would exercise restraint and that the USA government made the same assurance.
