Taiwan rebuffs Philippines' complaint about South China Sea live fire drills

TAIPEI - Taiwan on Wednesday rebuffed a complaint from the Philippines about live fire drills around a Taiwan-controlled island deep in the South China Sea, saying it had the right to do so and always issues a warning of its exercises.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in a message on Twitter late on Tuesday, lodged a "strong objection over the unlawful live fire drills" to be carried out by Taiwan this week around the island, known internationally as Itu Aba.

Taiwan calls the island Taiping and the Philippines calls it Ligaw Island.

The DFA said the island belonged to the Philippines.

"This illegal activity raises tensions and complicates the situation in the South China Sea," it said.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement the island was part of the territory of the Republic of China — Taiwan's formal name — and that it enjoyed all relevant rights accorded by international law.

"Our country has the right to conduct routine exercises on Taiping Island and related maritime areas. In order to ensure the safety of maritime traffic and fishing boats operating in adjacent maritime areas, we notify the relevant regional countries in advance before each live-fire drill," it said.

Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratly Islands, a grouping of islets and other features also claimed, entirely or in part, by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Philippines has filed complaints about China's activities in the South China Sea, including what Manila says is illegal fishing.

Like most countries, the Philippines has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but there are close cultural and economic links and Taiwan is home to about 160,000 Filipinos, most of them migrant workers.

The maps China bases its South China Sea claims on date to when Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China government ruled China before it fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists.

Taiwan also controls the Pratas Islands at the very northern end of the South China Sea.

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration however gave a landmark ruling on July 12, 2016 invalidating Beijing’s massive claims in the South China Sea.

"The Tribunal concluded that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’," the Permanent Court of Arbitration said.

The 501-page ruling was handed down in The Hague, Netherlands, more than three years after the case was filed by the Philippines under the Aquino administration in January 2013.

China however rejected the Philippines' call to comply with the 2016 arbitration ruling, calling the decision "illegal and invalid.” —Reuters/KG, GMA News