THE DAILY PLANET: MANILA, Philippines — Locsin, Pompeo discuss policy on maritime claims
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BREAKING NEWS:
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MANILA- Locsin orders check on Chinese survey ship near Recto Bank
This undated photo shows Chinese survey vessel Xiang Yang Hong 9. Another ship of this type, Xiang Yang Hong 15, was recently tracked in Philippine exclusive economic zone near Recto Bank. These types of ships are used for oceanographic surve Wikimedia Commons/Boloomo/ Patricia Lourdes Viray -Philstar.com
MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Friday ordered a check on the reported presence of a Chinese survey vessel near Recto or Reed Bank in the West Philippine Sea.
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Citing data from ship tracking intelligence MarineTraffic, Twitter user @JAVAPRINCE4 posted photos of the track of Chinese survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 4.
According to MarineTraffic, the Chinese research ship departed Guangzhou, China on July 22 and arrived in the area of Recto Bank on August 6.
In response to this, Locsin asked the DFA Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs to look into the reported presence of the Chinese vessel in Philippine exclusive economic zone.
“I know there was permission for a US survey ship, then a French one though I can’t remember when that was from the undiminishing pile of sheets on my table,” Locsin tweeted Friday morning.
“What I know is there’s very little interest in marine surveys of [South China Sea] by Western outfits; they don’t think much of the prospects in our neck of the woods,” he added.
Around the same time last year, President Rodrigo Duterte banned foreign marine survey ships in the Philippine exclusive economic zone following several reports of Chinese survey ships entering the country’s waters.
The Duterte administration warned that it will enforce an “unfriendly” response against foreign vessels passing through Philippine territorial waters.
Then presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said all foreign vessels passing through the country’s territorial waters must get clearance from the government in advance of actual passage.
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MANILA, Philippines — United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has discussed with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. his country’s latest policy on maritime claims in the South China Sea, which supports sovereign rights of coastal states as well as rules-based order in contested waters.
In a statement on Friday (Manila time), State Department deputy spokesperson Cale Brown said Pompeo, in a phone call with Locsin, stressed US support for coastal states in Southeast Asia, especially in “upholding their sovereign rights and interests consistent with international law.”
The two diplomats also talked about “opportunities for further US-Philippine maritime cooperation” as well as “the strong economic, security and people-to-people ties that bind our two countries,” Brown said.
Pompeo’s telephone call to Locsin came days after President Duterte stopped the country’s participation in joint maritime exercises with the US and other nations in the South China Sea.
Pompeo, in a tweet yesterday, described his conversation with Locsin as a “good call” as they discussed the two countries’ “shared interests” in the South China Sea.
“The US-Philippine Alliance is vital to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said.
Last month, Pompeo said the US was aligning its position with that of the United Nations tribunal’s 2016 decision that sided with the Philippines and nullified China’s “nine-dash line” claim over the entire South China Sea.
In a statement on July 14, the top US diplomat specifically said China “cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim – including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough (Panatag) Reef and the Spratly Islands – vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf.”
Australia has aligned itself with the US in supporting the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling.
China has refused to recognize the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on July 12, 2016, which invalidated the country’s expansive claims over the entire South China Sea and upheld the Philippines’ rights over its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone under the UNCLOS.
Apart from China and the Philippines, the other South China Sea claimants are Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
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No conflict
Despite China’s provocative activities in the West Philippine Sea, newly installed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, believes that there is no real dispute with Beijing over territories since the islands and features in the West Philippine Sea clearly belong to the Filipinos.
“For us, there is no conflict. And the arbitral ruling has clearly dismissed expansive claims that subvert international law and the laws of the sea and we will continue to advance this,” Gapay told reporters at a virtual press briefing held shortly after he assumed the post of chief of staff earlier this week.
The new AFP chief also clearly stated that the West Philippine Sea “is still our territory up to the 12-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.” – With Michael Punongbayan
Affairs (ASPAC) to check on the report.
In a post on Twitter, the Indo-Pacific News said a Chinese survey vessel is currently in the Philippine EEZ, supposedly in Recto (Reed) Bank.
It said the vessel Xiang Yang Hong 14 departed China on July 22 and arrived at Recto Bank on Aug. 6.
“No opposition from the PH coast guard so far, as usual,” the Indo-Pacific News said. – Michael Punongbayan
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8.9.2020
