Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida stressed the need for all parties to submit to the rule of law “and not the rule of coercion in the pursuit of solution to the conflict”.
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Former Philippines president and special envoy to China, Fidel Ramos, has said that Manila wants to initiate formal talks with Beijing over the South China Sea dispute. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the sea believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.
Kishida said Japan would maintain its support to the Philippines with the delivery next week of the first of 10 coastguard vessels.
China, according to Carpio, has the “legal obligation” to comply with the ruling, but admitted that there is no marine policeman to enforce the decision, making the waters’ uninhabited feature vulnerable to future destructive reclamation activities by China.
He and Mr Kishida urged Beijing to observe the rule of law after China vowed to ignore the ruling.
The Philippines will soon receive from Japan surveillance aircrafts, a fastcraft and two other vessels to help secure maritime borders.
While India’s stance seemed lukewarm, it sends a clear-cut message when its foreign minister said countries should respect global laws, including the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Nine Chinese government vessels that were in the contiguous zone just outside Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands left the area before 9 a.m. on August 11, but two made their way back into the zone shortly after 9 a.m.
China, meanwhile, has accused the Philippines of having “deliberately mischaracterized” disputes in the sea, declaring the court’s award “null and void”.
Citing officials, Reuters reported this week that Vietnam has been discreetly moving new rocket launchers to several of its islands in the South China Sea, which could damage Chinese military installations.
In July, an global court in The Hague ruled against China’s claims in the resource-rich South China Sea after a case was brought forward by the Philippines, a decision stridently rejected by Beijing.
The sea, a critical asset for global shipping and fishing, sees more than $5 trillion in maritime trade every year.
The East China Sea, much like the South China Sea, is the subject of a territorial dispute as China declares its sovereignty over the sea itself and the islands within it, which is refuted by the Japanese authorities.
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A senior USA military official says an advanced US missile defense system that is to be deployed in South Korea only targets North Korea, not China.
