The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s tribunal deciding the Philippines’ legal case against China recently announced it’ll conclude its decision on July 12.
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China claims almost all the South China Sea, but its claims overlap in part with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Washington accuses Beijing of carrying out “a land reclamation program” in the disputed territory.
Beijing has artificially enlarged islets and reefs to build runways, ports and other installations to legitimize its claims.
He urged the USA to honor its commitment to not taking sides on issues related to sovereign disputes, be prudent with its actions and words, and not to take any actions that infringe upon China’s sovereignty and security interests.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is now patrolling the sea.
The Virginia-based Navy Times reported this week that three United States destroyers the Spruance, Stethem and Momsen have been patrolling near the Chinese-claimed Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands further south.
“We will provide critical support for diplomacy by providing a credible deterrent against the use of force”, Denmark said.
Gary Ross said, “the United Sates will abide by established global standards as highlighted in our confidence building measure, and expect China to do the same”.
Ban’s visit takes place during a period of significant erosion in the human rights situation in China, including the adoption of draconian laws on national security and foreign nongovernmental organization management, the failure to hold the state security apparatus accountable for torture and other abuses, and the imprisonment of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize victor Liu Xiaobo.
“First, the urgent priority is to stop the arbitration case initiated by the Philippines”.
The USS Ronald Reagan and its contingent have also been sailing the South China Sea since last week. We are not prepared to go to war.
“The arbitration and any award are obviously unpopular”, Hong said.
Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China following Tuesday’s verdict, with the negotiations to cover jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Years earlier, former Philippine president Benigno Aquino III also said joint exploration is possible as long as Philippine laws prevail.
The sea, which spans around 3.5 million square kilometres, is vital to Australia’s interests, carrying the majority of its trade to China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
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Fielding questions during a Legislature committee session, Feng said the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has been carefully monitoring the regional situation near the South China Sea ahead of the July 12 ruling. In anticipation of trouble should the court not rule as expected, the American aircraft carriers have been deployed off the Philippines, the biggest show of United States strength in the region since the Taiwan crisis 20 years ago.
