ASEAN to call out against aggressive acts in the South China Sea

Southeast Asian nations will again call out against aggressive actions that can cause clashes, accidents or miscalculation in the disputed South China Sea in their annual summit this week.

However, the recent ramming of a Filipino fishing boat at the Reed Bank, also known as the Recto Bank, showcases the real danger in the resource-rich waters.

“We affirmed the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that may further complicate the situation, and pursue peaceful resolution of disputes in according with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS,” read a draft communique seen by GMA News Online.

The draft chairman’s statement, to be issued at the end of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on June 22-23, did not include the June 9 incident between a Chinese vessel and a Filipino fishing boat at Reed Bank.

A Chinese vessel allegedly rammed a Filipino fishing boat causing it to founder, and later on abandoned the crew in the Reed Bank off the western Philippine province of Palawan.

It is not clear if the Philippines will demand for its inclusion in the document or if President Rodrigo Duterte will take it up with other ASEAN leaders during the meeting.

The Philippines is the current country coordinator of the ASEAN-China dialogue, giving it more clout to have the incident, which Philippine government officials earlier condemned, to be reflected in the statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who adopted a friendly stance towards Beijing, has refrained from publicly criticizing China after the incident.

Since he assumed office in 2016, Duterte has moved to mend ties with China that seriously deteriorated under President Benigno Aquino III, who approved the filing of an arbitration case against Beijing in 2013 to counter its massive claim in the South China Sea.

The court handed a sweeping victory for the Philippines and invalidated China’s claims over nearly the entire waters.

The 22 Filipino crewmen of the sunken F/B Gim-Vir 1 were rescued by a Vietnamese vessel. They were later secured by a patrolling Philippine navy frigate.

China admitted the presence of a Chinese vessel in Reed Bank, which is within Philippine waters but being claimed by Beijing. However, it denied the Chinese vessel intentionally hit the Filipino fishing boat.

“China should not have been fishing in our exclusive economic zone. The rights to fish there are exclusively ours,” said former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario.

The Chinese vessel, according to China, sailed away after it was swarmed by several Filipino fishing boats.

China’s Embassy in Manila said the Chinese captain “tried to rescue the Filipino fishermen, but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats.”

"The Chinese side attaches great importance to China-Philippines friendship and safety of life at sea, and will continue to properly handle this issue with the Philippines in a serious and responsible manner," the embassy said.

This latest incident highlights the risks of encounters in the contested waters, where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

In the draft ASEAN document, leaders would take note of the progress of “substantive negotiations” for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea within a “mutually agreed timeline.”

A regional code of conduct aims to prevent conflicting territorial claims in the vast potentially-oil rich region from erupting into violent confrontations or worse, an economically-devastating major conflict.

ASEAN leaders, the document said, would welcome efforts to complete the first of the three readings of the draft code of conduct within the year.

The leaders would also emphasize the need to continue enforcing practical measures “that could reduce tensions and the risk of accidents, misunderstandings and miscalculation.”

Among these are the government to government hotline between ASEAN and China to manage maritime emergencies in the South China Sea and the operationalization of the Application of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) which was adopted on Sept. 7, 2016.

Without naming China or any other country, the leaders, according to the draft, will express concern on the land reclamations and activities in the waters and call for its non-militarization.

China, which claims a huge swathe of the South China Sea as part of its territory, beefed 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.

The language of the draft statement may still change. Wording and paragraphs are still subject to fine-tuning before the final statement is released by the leaders. — DVM, GMA News