China routinely carries out exercises in the South China Sea.
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China regularly holds such exercises even though Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the seas.
An global ruling this month is expected to deprive China of any legal basis for its claim to most of the South China Sea, the Philippines’ chief lawyer in the case, Paul Reichler, told Reuters last week.
Meanwhile, China’s Maritime Safety Administration announced that drills will take place between July 5 to July 11. China has built artificial islands in disputed areas and has been angered by periodic USA military patrols nearby. “But I think the point is when others see that the tensions in the South China Sea go up, they are up jumping in because the situation is not made better”, Ng said, referring to occasional flare-ups in the hotly contested waters.
A ruling against Beijing “would deprive China of any legal basis for making such a claim”, Paul Reichler, the Philippines’ chief lawyer in the case told Reuters.
Rival countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has steadily increased in recent years.
The sea routes passing by the Paracels in the strategically important waters of the South China Sea are key to ship-borne trade worth $US 5 trillion annually.
“Judging from what he said it proves that arbitral tribunal is the mouthpiece of certain countries”, he said, in a veiled reference to the USA, which is backing the Philippines and other countries challenging China’s claims on the SCS.
The Philippines brought the case after China seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012.
Philippine Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay said he had rejected suggestions to issue a strong statement against China if the decision goes Manila’s way.
The Philippines sought unilateral arbitral proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2013.
“Negotiation is the only best method for this kind of disputes, particularly with so many hard features coming from a long background and history”, added Rao, a participant in the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea from 1973 to 1982, which led to the adoption of UNCLOS.
Separately, the United States has informed China that it will refrain from taking specific actions on the South China Sea before Beijing hosts a summit of the Group of 20 major developed and developing nations in September, according to a diplomatic source.
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“China is defending not only its territorial sovereignty but world peace and stability when fighting against the obstinacy displayed in the South China Sea arbitration”, the state-run news agency said.
