In a statement issued yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said Malaysia took note of yesterday’s decision by the Arbitral Tribunal under Annex VIII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), which ruled in favour of the Philippines’ case over China.
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An arbitration court at the Hague has ruled that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and that it has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions.
China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in South China Sea, in any circumstances, will not be affected by the award.
It also found that China had interfered with Philippine petroleum exploration at Reed Bank, tried to stop fishing by Philippine vessels within the country’s exclusive economic zone and failed to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone at Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal. Instead it has aggressively staked its maritime claim through massive, rapid island reclamation and creation of artificial islands in the disputed zone.
The Philippines had contested China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Manilacontended were invalid under global law.
However a new Philippine leader who appears friendlier to Beijing could also influence the aftermath of the ruling.
At the same time, the U.S.is concerned that the Philippines-a USA treaty ally-shouldn’t undermine the tribunal’s ruling in any agreement it reaches with China, diplomats say. Britain said the tribunal had no jurisdiction to make the ruling.
China opposes and will never accept any claim or action based on those awards, the statement quoted by state-run Xinhua new agency said.
The MND and MAC were asked by the Legislative Yuan to report on how the ruling by the Hague-based court will affect Taiwan and its neighboring countries.
Issuing a white paper, China’s vice foreign minister said Beijing is upholding its sovereignty over islands in the region which includes the right to set up an air defence zone.
Some sea areas were therefore definitely in the Philippines’ EEZ, it said, as they were “not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China”.
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.
China has said it “does not accept and does not recognise” the ruling.
“The Philippines has concocted many excuses to cover up this fact, and to pursue its territorial pretencions”, said the document, titled ‘China Adheres to the Position of Settling Through Negotiation the Relevant Disputes Between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea’.
The verdict further said that China has caused “severe harm to the coral reef environment and violated its obligation to preserve and protect fragile ecosystems and the habitat of depleted, threatened, or endangered species” through the construction of artificial islands.
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The surprisingly strong and sweeping ruling by the UN-backed body in The Hague provided powerful diplomatic ammunition to the Philippines, which filed the challenge, and other claimants in their decades-long disputes with China over the resource-rich waters.
