Finally, after years of on-and-off negotiations, even acrimonious exchanges at times, a way forward is now being drawn up on the contentious South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue.
Coming out of the recently concluded meeting of Asean Foreign Ministers meeting in Singapore, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that he and his counterparts in the 10-member regional grouping have agreed on a draft Code of Conduct on the disputed area.
It appears that this draft was finally accepted by all the parties after it was clearly indicated that “…resolving tensions in the South China Sea is an issue only for China and its Southeast Asian neighbors to negotiate.”
The parties agreed and made clear that “outside interference will only complicate sensitive and complex issues” engendered no end by years of mangled exchanges exacerbated by unending interjections by outside forces. Thus, after 16 long years of drawn out negotiations, there is clearly light at the end of the tunnel. And the good thing is it is not from a speeding wrecker train.
Noted a keen observer of the scene after the parties hailed this critical development as no less than a milestone in China-Asean relations: “The like mindedness attending the agreement of the parties was truly encouraging..with all countries setting aside differing approaches to the problem in favor of working together for a common, single solution. This is the only way to ensure that the contested waters will one day be awash with cooperation, peace and stability.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi put it even more colorfully when he likened the way forward as a process where “China and the Asean are building a house together, with each country having its own idea of what the building should look like and now the groundwork has been set for a single design.”
Although no details of the draft code were released after the Singapore meeting, it is clear that the goal posts have moved. Where before each country was engaged in moving its own post without regard for those of the others, now there is a singularity of purpose and direction. The disputes among the claimant countries, China and the Asean 4 (Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei) will now be negotiated under the aegis of a Code of Conduct which promotes consensus building and making of concessions by parties.
The adopted draft code simply titled “Single Draft South China Sea Code of Conduct Negotiating Text” takes off from the previously adopted “Framework Agreement on the Code of Conduct” which was initialed by the countries years back. As agreed, the SDNT noted that “it is not an instrument to settle territorial disputes or maritime delineation issues” with a cleverly indexed caveat inserted by Malaysia which read: “the parties further acknowledge that the Code of Conduct does not address nor affect the Parties’ position on legal questions relating to the settlement of disputes, maritime boundaries, or the permissible maritime entitlements of the parties under international law as enshrined in the 1982 UNCLOS.”
It is clear from the discussions and the final output that the agreement reached in Singapore is just the first step in clearing the air as it effectively calms the waters and directs the parties to settle issues peacefully.
Instead of the parties haranguing and shouting at each other, the text provides a platform for the parties to engage in discussions without the need of advice or assistance from countries outside of the grouping. And only in accord with international law and the age old tradition of civility and non-confrontation.
So, even as Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano tangles with the likes of former President Aquino and Senator Trillanes, both of whom have now called him a traitor to their earlier cause/alliance, the issue over which they have exchanged such acrimonious language is now on its way to being peacefully settled. And all for the better—for the Philippines and our neighbors.
In the event, their heated revelations against each other only reinforces the view that in the six years that Mr. Aquino and company were in charge they have only succeeded in deepening the wounds inflicted on our relations with China and, yes, even with the other countries in Asean. Sayang.