The drills followed Tuesday’s ruling by the PCA in The Hague, which declared that a “nine-dash” line the Chinese government used to delineate South China Sea claims, contravenes the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that China had aggravated the situation by constructing artificial islands.
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The Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration established at the unilateral request of the Republic of the Philippines has no jurisdiction over the relevant matters. If our security were threatened, of course we have the right. “This would depend on our overall assessment”, Liu said in a briefing.
An worldwide tribunal made a landmark ruling Tuesday rejecting China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea, handing the Philippines a victory and dealing a blow to Beijing. That zone is not recognised by the USA and others.
The two countries will continue promoting maritime cooperation and common development, and not allow the disputes to affect the healthy development of their relations and peace and stability in the region, according to the vice foreign minister.
The South China Sea is a resource-rich strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped each year.
“China will respond at different levels to the ruling of the … tribunal, ranging from crude propaganda to highly sophisticated”.
“We have to see what China will do, give time to see how China will behave”.
The ruling is binding but the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no powers of enforcement.
He said China has to factor in worldwide opinion as also domestic opinion.
Answering queries about the possibility of China imposing an air defence identification zone in South China Sea, Dutton said he did not think it would be done in the near future.
Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who brought the case against China in 2013, said the decision brought clarity to the disputes that “now establishes better conditions that enable countries to engage each other, bearing in mind their duties and rights within a context that espouses equality and amity”.
Co-operation, however, would remain elusive if conflicts over claims persist, he said.
The disputes have increased friction between China and the United States, which has ramped up its military presence in the region as China has expanded its navy’s reach farther offshore.
Earnest also urged the parties not to use the ruling as an opportunity to engage in escalatory or provocative actions.
The five-man tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, has no power to enforce its rulings, and China defiantly refused to join the case or accept the verdict even though, like the Philippines, it had ratified the United Nations treaty that was a basis for the ruling.
China had no possible entitlement to areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, it added.
The white paper issued by the State Council Information Office stated that the core of the relevant disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea lies in the territorial issues caused by the Philippines’ invasion and illegal occupation of some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Qundao (the Nansha Islands).
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Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines.
