US Senate calls for peace in West Philippine Sea

MANILA, Philippines - American Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the foreign relations committee, said  the disputes in East and South China Seas are brought about by jockeying for position in a region that will become the center of trade and commerce in the coming years. 

"The territorial disputes at play in the Asia-Pacific region today are not about the past, but very much about the future of a region poised to serve as an epicenter for global economic development for the 21st century," Menendez said in a statement Wednesday.

Calling for peace in the seas, Menendez said  the US will intervene through diplomacy in the disputes mainly involving China's claims over territories that the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan affirm as theirs.

"With a long history of engagement in the region, the United States has a vital interest in working with all nations in developing, institutionalizing, and sustaining a rules-based order for the area," the senator said.

"That starts with putting in place effective mechanisms to manage maritime disputes that destabilize the region, and supporting and encouraging the peaceful resolution of disputes in the Asia-Pacific maritime domain," he added.

Menendez sponsored US Senate Resolution 167 calling for peaceful resolutions in maritime rows in the Pacific, which was unanimously approved by the chamber Monday.

The resolution cites the Philippines efforts in elevating the matter to an international arbitration court and quotes Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario as saying that the country has "exhausted almost all political and and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of its maritime dispute with China."

"The Senate strongly urges that all parties to maritime and territorial disputes in the region exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would undermine stability or complicate or escalate disputes, including refraining from inhabiting presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, and other features and handle their differences in a constructive manner," the resolution says.

Read the complete US Senate resolution

Ranking member Bob Corker, as well as Senators Ben Cardin and Marco Rubio of the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee authored the resolution with Menendez.

China's growing militarization

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate has also reportedly adopted a proposed resolution condemning the use of force in the disputed West Philippine Sea amid China's growing militarization in the area.

A report from Kyodo News said the U.S. Senate "unanimously adopted" the resolution on Monday, July 29 (U.S. time).

"The Senate condemns the use of coercion, threats, or force by naval, maritime security, or fishing vessels and military or civilian aircraft in the South China Sea and the East China Sea to assert disputed maritime or territorial claims or alter the status quo," the report quoted the resolution.

The Philippines, China, and several Southeast Asian nations are claiming territories in the West Philippine Sea, with the Asian giant pressing its territorial claim over nearly all the disputed waters.

The country is seeking to stop Chinese incursions into its exclusive economic zone in the area. It has taken the issue before an international arbitral tribunal after exhausting all other means to peacefully settle the territorial row.

An earlier report said China is enhancing its presence in the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef to pressure the Philippines to remove its grounded ship in nearby Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

Rommel Banlaoi of the Philippine Association of Chinese Studies said China has transformed the Panganiban Reef off Palawan into an active naval detachment and military garrison.

Related story: China boosts presence near reef

On the other hand, the Philippine government has recently expressed its plan to move its Air Force and Navy to Subic, Zambales to closely monitor the country's maritime domain.

A newspaper report in China criticized the recent move of the Philippines, saying it aims to target the Asian giant.

Li Guoqiang, deputy director of the Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the plan "increases the risks of conflicts in the region."

"If all related parties resort to military means as Manila has for a resolution, the region will surely become a powder keg," Li was quoted as saying in the report.

Related story: 'China is target of Manila's transfer of forces to Subic'