A UNITED Association of Southeast Asian Nations is the best way to implement the ruling of a UN tribunal invalidating China’s territorial claims to most of the South China Sea, an Australian expert said Wednesday.
To prevent the involvement of “external powers” such as the United States, the 10 member states of the Asean need to unite to oppose China’s claims, said Prof. Michael Heazle of Griffith University.
“The best approach is for those states to cooperate and provide a unified opposition to any further claims of maritime right that
China might have,” Heazle said on the sidelines of the Second Manila Conference on the South China Sea in Manila Hotel.
He said it was important for the 10 member countries to share similar views on the South China Sea dispute and the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines.
But during the last Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in Vientiane, a joint communique failed to even mention China or the PCA ruling against it. The failure to include these developments in the final communique was widely seen as a victory for China, which had pressed Cambodia to oppose such a statement.
Asean only acts on consensus, which means any member can effectively veto a course of action.
But Heazle warned that if Asean fails to unite, a “dangerous situation” could develop as external powers get involved.
Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea University of the Philippines director Dr. Jay Batongbacal on the other hand said the Philippines must accept that Asean will never have a unified position when it comes to the PCA ruling.
He said that the Philippines must revisit the role of Asean in the dispute.
“We need to rethink our envisioned role for Asean in this dispute. Maybe we have to accept that there are some things that will never be able to achieve full unity, or that there’ll be some thing that Asean could not be able to address as a whole,” Batongbacal said.
He said Asean could be useful on some other issues, but not the ongoing territorial dispute.
Aside from the Philippines, Asean countries, including Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia, have overlapping claims over parts of the South China Sea.
The Philippines on Wednesday reiterated its commitment to pursue a diplomatic and legal solution to its ongoing dispute with China.
In a speech read for Secretary Perfecto Yasay, DFA Undersecretary Enrique Manalo said the Philippines is ready to engage with other claimant states in the South China Sea.
“The Philippines is ready to engage all relevant stakeholders, especially the claimant states. We are confident that the award will help in finding ways forward to resolve the disputes,” Manalo said, referring to the July 12 decision of the PCA.
China has refused to recognize the PCA ruling.
The government, meanwhile, has advised fishermen to temporarily avoid the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea, particularly in the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc), until the issue of fishing rights has been ironed out through bilateral talks with China.
DFA spokesman Charles Jose was reacting to a Chinese declaration that they would jail anyone fishing illegally in the waters that Beijing claims as its own.
“The call includes Filipino fishermen because we know that China has already occupied Scarborough Shoal so we might as well wait for the issue to be cleared and how our fishermen can go back to fishing without being subjected to any form of harassment,” Jose told the reporters during the conference.
On Tuesday, Jose said that the fishing rights will be a “priority issue” in bilateral talks between special envoy to Beijing former President Fidel Ramos with China’s counterpart.
“This is definitely a priority issue that we will have to resolve in our talks with China,” Jose said in a phone interview.