Citing China’s record in resolving territorial disputes with its neighbors, Liu reiterated that the door remains open for the Philippines to return to bilateral negotiations with China.
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Yasay issued a rejoinder on Saturday to elaborate his statement.
“What I said is we have to wait for the ruling and study and dissect its implications”.
Manila lodged its suit against Beijing in 2013, challenging China’s claims to much of the strategic waterway and saying it was in violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both countries are signatories.
The UN-backed tribunal in The Hague is set to release its verdict on the case filed by the Philippines in 2013 against Beijing’s claim to nearly all of the contested areas.
Yasay had to clarify his statement to Agence France Presse (AFP) released Friday about the Philippines being willing to share the disputed West Philippines Sea (or South China Sea) with China-even if the Philippines wins the ruling at The Hague, which is scheduled to come out next week.
China claims almost all the South China Sea, but its claims overlap in part with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
“The “clarification” subsequently issued by (Department of Foreign Affairs) was an immediate attempt at damage control, which I think shows just how potentially damaging Yasay’s comments were”, said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. A nation has sovereign rights to exploit natural resources within that zone.
The state-run China Daily reported Saturday that a foreign ministry spokesman dismissed a call by a Pentagon official responsible for East Asia, Abraham Denmark, for China and the Philippines – which launched the arbitration – to comply with the July 12 ruling.
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(Liao Zhengjun, Zhang Penghui of People’s Daily) – The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines was a weak substitute for realistic but honest foreign policy, and the United States of America should have urged the Philippines to return to a diplomatic resolution, an American expert on foreign policy said.
