US defense chief: Taiwan, Philippines signing new fisheries pact

MANILA, Philippines — American Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last Saturday that the Philippines is forging a fisheries agreement with neighboring Taiwan.

In his speech in Singapore lon Saturday, Hagel lauded the bilateral pact, which he said was recently agreed on by the two countries having overlapping exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea.

"We all know cooperation is possible," Hagel said at the annual Asia Security Summit hosted by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

"This week, Taiwan and the Philippines agreed to sign a new fisheries agreement," Hagel said.

Hagel announced the upcoming agreement as among the regional efforts to "peacefully resolve disputes in accordance with international law."

The Philippines has caught some Taiwanese poachers off Batanes Islands north of the country, while some of its Coast Guard men were recently indicted for homicide over a shooting incident killing a Taiwanese fisherman last year.

Taiwanese fishermen were also arrested last year for entering and poaching in Philippine waters.

The issues followed reports that the two countries are negotiating on the possibility of forging a sharing fishing zones, but no official statement has been made by the governments on the pact's development.

Taiwan's Fisheries Agency declined to comment Sunday on when the agreement with the Philippines will be signed.

Tsay Tzu-yaw, deputy director-general of the agency, told state-run Chinese News Agency, that the matter is being dealt with by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Taiwanese fisherman Tsai Po, center, detained by Filipino law enforcement officers in Batan island for trespassing into Philippine waters in September 2013. BFAR photo

Hagel, meanwhile, also lauded the settlement of a longstanding maritime boundary dispute between the Indonesia and the Philippines with an agreement signed in May detailing the delimitation of the waters exclusive to each archipelago.