“We support efforts to resolve territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea peacefully, including through arbitration”, he said.
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China and Taiwan are finding common ground after an worldwide court dismissed their shared claims to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea.
Malaysia, which has been building closer ties with China in recent years, called for “the full and effective implementation” of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) signed by Asean and China 2002, and the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) between China and Asean countries, the foreign ministry said in its statement on Tuesday.
The International Court even added that the fiercely disputed Spratly Islands “are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, because those areas are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China”.
The statement was in response to the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on Tuesday that found that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) through its large-scale activities in the South China Sea.
Also on Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang said that by not accepting nor recognizing the award, China is in fact safeguarding the global law. China “solemnly declares that the award is null and void and has no binding force”.
The tribunal ruled it had jurisdiction in the case under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both China and the Philippines – but not the United States – are party to.
Beijing called the Philippines claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea “baseless” and an “act of bad faith”.
It added that “China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards”.
Filipino fishermen who have traditionally harvested catch from Scarborough Shoal and other areas in the South China Sea have been unable to do so since China began driving them away, at times bombarding them with water cannon.
Japan’s foreign minister Fumio Kishida said the tribunal’ s decision is “final and legally binding” and that the two sides should comply with it.
“We hope that other countries don’t use this opportunity to threaten China, and hope that other countries can work hard with China, meet us halfway, and maintain the South China Sea’s peace and stability, and not turn the South China Sea in a source of war”, Liu said.
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The tribunal said that any historical resource rights China may have had were wiped out if they are incompatible with exclusive economic zones established under the United Nations treaty, which both countries have signed. It remains to be seen, however, how far Duterte can stray from Manila’s previously critical stance, given his country’s growing nationalist sentiment against China’s actions.
