Locsin: World would be safer if only greatest power would subscribe to UNCLOS

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. on Thursday said it would be a safer world if only the “greatest power on earth led by the example of subscribing to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”

Locsin, who made the remark at the opening ceremony of the 7th Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law, particularly referred to issues in the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea.

In his speech, the foreign affairs secretary stressed that 2019 marks the 25th year of the coming into force of the UNCLOS.

“Despite near universal acceptance by 168 states parties,”  Locsin said, “the most imminent and potentially the most disastrous dangers in our world today pertain to marine and maritime affairs — the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea.”

He added, “If only we respected pacta sunt servanda in our obligations under UNCLOS, there would be less animosity with its greater likelihood of conflict.”

“If only the greatest power on earth led by the example of subscribing to UNCLOS, it would be a safer world.”

According to Locsin, the universal acceptance of international law the only cure for the uncertainty that, he said “gnaws at our sense of security and “invites us to prepare for war to find its opposite in peace.”

“Not in place of the national self-interest, but to serve it better.”

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China  have their respective territorial claims in the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and mineral deposits. — MDM, GMA News