SCS code negotiations to start next month; PHL-China to carry out joint cooperation

The Philippines and China on Tuesday announced that Southeast Asian nations and Beijing will start next month the negotiations for a code of conduct in the disputed South China Sea and added both governments may carry out several joint initiatives, including oil and gas research.

A one-day bilateral consultation between the two sides was held in Manila on Tuesday, several days after photos of China’s nearly completed military facilities in the disputed waters have surfaced.

Both sides described the meeting as “positive, fruitful and productive.”

The bilateral consultation mechanism (BCM) was the second meeting held between the Philippines and China since relations between the two Asian neighbors improved under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Enrique Manalo headed the Philippine delegation and Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou represented China to the BCM —  a consultation mechanism that they said “would continue to contribute to the stable growth of bilateral relations.”

A joint statement issued to the press at the end of their meeting said Manila and Beijing are committed to “the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in its entirety, and to begin negotiations on a Code of Conduct on the South China Sea early next month.”

“Both sides reaffirmed that contentious maritime issues are not the sum total of the Philippines-China bilateral relationship,” the statement said.

Manila and Beijing also reaffirmed the importance of “maintaining and promoting peace and stability, freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea, freedom of international commerce and other peaceful uses of the sea, addressing territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force.”

Friendly consultations

They also said it will continue “friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law,” including the Charter of the United Nations and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The resource-rich South China Sea, a chain of more than 100 islands, shoals, reefs and coral outcrops, straddles one of the world’s most vital sea lanes. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are also claimants to the South China Sea.

China has long frowned on any discussion of the disputes in multilateral arenas like the ASEAN, demanding instead for a bilateral negotiation.

Beijing likewise opposed any role by non-claimant countries, specially the US, in resolving the territorial spats.

Although the US is not a party to the disputes, it has declared in the past that it is in its national  interest to ensure freedom of navigation, trade and peace and stability in the South China Sea, where a bulk of the world’s trade passes through.

“Both sides agreed to continue discussions on confidence-building measures to increase mutual trust and confidence and to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the South China Sea that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability,” the statement added.

Joint initiatives

Part of these confidence-building measures, they said, is the possibility of conducting several joint initiatives in the waters, which include oil and gas cooperation and marine scientific research.

Such activities, they noted, will be conducted “without prejudice to their respective positions on sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.”

“There were intensive discussions on mutually beneficial joint initiatives and consensus on the convening of technical working groups in the areas of fisheries, oil and gas, marine scientific research and marine environmental protection, and political security, in the framework of the BCM,” the joint statement said.

The technical working groups has already identified a number of possible cooperative initiatives, the statement said.

China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over 90 percent of the waters, where undersea gas, oil and mineral deposits have been discovered in several areas.

It also refused to honor the Netherlands-based international arbitral tribunal ruling that invalidated its massive claim. The case was filed by Manila in 2013 under then President Benigno Aquino III after China seized the Manila-clamed Scarborough Shoal following months of standoff with the Philippines.

Unlike Aquino, Duterte made friendly overtures to China. His decision to set aside the country's arbitration victory over South China Sea territories has improved Manila’s relations with China and allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the Scarborough Shoal as promise of huge development assistance poured in from Beijing.

Over the recent years, Beijing has taken a more aggressive stance in the tense waters, beefing up its reclamation activities in disputed areas and transformed previously submerged features into artificial islands with multi-level buildings and runways. It has also installed surface-to-air missiles in these areas, triggering concerns from countries, such as the US, Japan and Australia.

Competing claims the waters have sparked occasional violence and now regarded as a potential flashpoint for armed conflict. —KBK, GMA News