Tag Archives: Scarborough Shoal

News, Politics, Government

Sea disputes, NKorea in spotlight at ASEAN summit

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Worried that long-seething rifts could escalate over the South China Sea, Southeast Asian leaders are expected this week to press China to agree to start negotiations on a new pact aimed at thwarting a major clash in one of the world’s busiest waterways.

Concern over North Korea‘s latest threats is also expected to gain attention over economic issues in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, being held Wednesday and Thursday in Brunei‘s capital of Bandar Seri Begawan.

The 10-nation bloc is scrambling to beat a deadline to transform the strikingly diverse region of 600 million people into a European Union-like community by the end of 2015.

A draft statement to be issued after the summit, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, would reaffirm the ASEAN leaders’ commitment to ensure the peaceful resolution of South China Sea conflicts in accordance with international law “without resorting to the threat or use of force.”

They would call for “the early adoption of a code of conduct in the South China Sea,” referring to a legally binding pact ASEAN would like to forge with China to replace a 2002 nonaggression accord that has failed to stop territorial skirmishes.

China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims across the South China Sea, which Beijing claims in its entirety. The Philippines and Vietnam in particular have been at odds with China over the region in recent years, with diplomatic squabbles erupting over oil and gas exploration and fishing rights.

A tense standoff last year between Chinese and Filipino ships over the fishing-rich Scarborough Shoal is unresolved.

The Philippine vessels withdrew, but China has refused to pull out its three surveillance ships and remove a rope blocking Filipino fishermen from a Scarborough lagoon.

In January, the Philippines challenged China‘s massive territorial claims before an arbitration tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in a daring legal step that China has ignored. The tribunal has to appoint three more of five arbiters by Thursday, then start looking into the complaint if it decides it has jurisdiction.

A pre-summit meeting by ASEAN foreign ministers in Brunei two weeks ago was dominated by concerns over the territorial disputes and ended

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/fTrTRnu6Nzs/

News, Politics, Government

Philippines accuses China of chasing fishing boats

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Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Saturday accused Chinese vessels of preventing Filipino fishing boats from seeking shelter at a disputed South China Sea shoal in new incidents that he said prompted his government to elevate the case to international arbitration.

Aquino told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that the incidents took place recently at the Scarborough Shoal near the western coast of the northern Philippines. He said in one incident Chinese vessels got within 10 meters (yards) of two fishing boats and sounded their horns at full blast, and on another occasion two other Philippine boats were ordered out of the shoal despite bad weather.

Aquino quoted the fishermen’s account given to Philippine authorities.

The Chinese government did not immediately comment late Saturday.

Aquino, who was heading back to Manila from Davos, said the latest incidents in the South China Sea led his government to formally notify Beijing this week that it was bringing the countries’ dispute to a tribunal operating under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. It wants the panel to declare Beijing‘s moves in the potentially oil-rich waters unlawful.

“So I think the record is very clear,” Aquino said. “We have tried to de-escalate the situation. We have tried to adhere to all of their requests … help them with the transition period, and the transition, as far as we know, has already occurred. And instead of a de-escalation, there seems to be an escalation on their end,” he said. Aquino was referring to last year’s change of leadership in China, when according to Filipino diplomats, the Chinese side told their Philippine counterparts that Beijing was eager to settle the dispute.

Six governments have overlapping claims across the vast South China Sea, with China claiming it has sovereignty over virtually all of it. Chinese paramilitary ships confronted Philippine vessels last year in a monthslong standoff over the shoal that both countries claim.

In June, after the standoff, China wrested control of what it calls Huangyan island, and what the Philippines calls Scarborough Shoal. With a typhoon approaching, both sides agreed to withdraw their ships. But China quickly returned and strung up a cable across the lagoon to keep Philippine vessels out.

Aquino repeated his government‘s position that the shoal — a chain of tiny uninhabited horseshoe-shaped rocks 193 kilometers (120 miles) from the Philippine coastline — is part of the Philippines‘ 320-kilometer (200-mile) exclusive economic zone.

Despite the latest incidents, he said the Philippines is not going to complicate the situation and would wait for the next move of the U.N. tribunal.

Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said that “China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and its adjacent waters.” It said that the disputes should be settled by the rival claimants through one-on-one negotiations.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Philippines taking S. China Sea fight to tribunal

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The Philippine foreign secretary says his government is formally challenging China‘s claims to disputed South China Sea territories at an international tribunal.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters that his office has summoned China‘s ambassador in the Philippines on Tuesday to inform her that Manila is seeking arbitration, a move that China has opposed.

China claims virtually all of the South China Sea and has confronted Philippine ships in a standoff over the Scarborough Shoal, which both countries claim. The Philippines withdrew ships from the shoal last June and has since protested China‘s buildup.

Del Rosario says the Philippines has exhausted almost all political and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of maritime disputes with China, and hopes that the arbitral proceedings will bring results.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Philippines asks Japan for help amid China dispute

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The Philippines sought coast guard patrol ships and communications equipment from Japan to better secure the country’s territory in meetings on Thursday of their top diplomats, who expressed alarm over their countries’ territorial conflicts with China.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Japan would consider giving 10 patrol vessels and a communications system to Manila’s coast guard, adding his talks with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, also tackled ways to bolster trade, investments, tourism and maritime security cooperation.

Japan has wrangled with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. Japan controls the territory, which are also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Tensions over the tiny islands intensified after Tokyo bought them from their Japanese private owners in September, prompting Chinese protesters to hold demonstrations and boycott Japanese products.

Aside from long-unresolved disputes over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, China and the Philippines figured in a tense standoff last year over the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground, which sparked a heated exchange of words and strained relations.

Many have expressed fears that Asia‘s territorial disputes could spark the region’s next major armed conflict.

Del Rosario said he and Kishida expressed “mutual concern” over the disputes and China‘s aggressive steps to assert its territorial claims. Both sides, he said, discussed the possibility of learning from strategies their governments have each adopted to deal with the conflicts peacefully based on international law.

“I think we all understand that the assertions being made by China in terms of their nine-dash line claim, for example … pose threats to the stability of the region,” del Rosario said, referring to an official Chinese map with broken lines that depict Beijing‘s claim of virtually the entire South China Sea.

“We also need to be able to address the possibility that the freedom of navigation would be adversely impacted,” del Rosario told a news conference after meeting with Kishida.

The Philippine request for coast guard “multi-role response vessels” and a communications system would be endorsed for the Japanese government’s approval by Tokyo‘s foreign ministry. Once approved, the first patrol vessels could be delivered as early as this year, del Rosario said.

The Philippines has one of Asia‘s weakest militaries. It has turned to the United States, a defense treaty-ally, and other countries to modernize its poorly-equipped navy, air force and coast guard and better secure its extensive coastlines and territorial waters, including in potentially oil- and gas rich areas in and near the South China Sea.

Although it has vowed to pursue its territorial claims peacefully, the Philippine government has said it needed to develop a “minimum defense” capability to discourage poaching and foreign vessel intrusions.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News