The Philippines’ defence ministry released pictures on Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China’s premier at a summit in Laos.
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(Philippine Government via AP).
The 10 images and map were sent by email to journalists, many of whom are in Vientiane for the ASEAN summit.
North Korea’s defiant missile testing and the South China Sea territorial row were among a barrage of security threats in focus Thursday as US President Barack Obama gathered with East Asian leaders in Laos.
(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez). Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte adjusts his headset at the start of the retreat session in the ongoing 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits at the National Convention Center, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 in Vientiane, Laos.
A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China’s claims to most of the sea had no legal basis and its construction of artificial islands in the disputed waters was illegal.
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday reaffirmed their respect of freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea under principles of worldwide law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“The landmark arbitration ruling in July, which is binding, helped clarify maritime rights in the region”.
The ASEAN-China Summit is part of the ASEAN Plus Three Summit, with the likes of India PM Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in attendance.
“The CUEC can avoid any undesired incidents from occurring in the South China Sea”, he said. Obama brought that up again.
He said that China and the Philippines were discussing the issue, but gave no details.
“We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea”, said the draft. “We stressed the importance for the parties concerned to resolve their disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of global laws”, it said.
China has proceeded with an aggressive program of land reclamation on disputed islands and reefs in the sea, on which it has also been building military facilities.
The Philippines is concerned that China may plan to turn the shoal into another man-made island. The tribunal ruling also rebuked China for its land reclamation activities in the resource-rich sea, where it has conflicting claims with Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei besides the Philippines.
“Both China and the United States are among the most important partners of ASEAN, and ASEAN does not want to have to choose between those partners”, the secretary general of the bloc, Le Luong Minh, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Cambodia, for example, remains in China’s camp, as does Laos to a large extent, preventing any robust statement from the consensus-bound ASEAN group.
A Philippine security official travelling with Duterte said it was a challenge for the government to explain why Filipino fishermen can not go back and fish in the area when The Hague had ruled that Scarborough was a fishing ground for all.
“While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the United States president”, he said in a statement.
A statement by ASEAN on Wednesday listed eight points related to the South China Sea, but made no mention of the arbitration ruling.
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China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in trade passes annually, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
