MANILA, Philippines - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China are discussing setting up a “hotline” in case of an emergency regarding the territorial dispute over the South China Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.
The proposed hotline was discussed during a meeting of senior diplomats from China and ASEAN in Tianjin last week, said DFA spokesman Charles Jose.
Jose, whose country is one of the most vocal in the simmering dispute over the flashpoint waters, said the matter had been referred back to a joint working group and was still far from fruition.
“Although this was agreed in principle as an early harvest measure, it needs thorough discussion,” he said in a statement to AFP.
He stressed the hotline would not be unveiled at an upcoming meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers.
The Philippines and fellow ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims over the South China Sea along with China and Taiwan.
The dispute has grown increasingly tense in recent years with the Philippines at the forefront of accusing China of “bullying” in asserting its claim over the waters which are a crucial sea lane and fishing ground also believed to hold vast mineral resources.
In recent months, the Philippines has raised the alarm over China’s land reclamation to turn outcroppings in the sea into artificial islands that can host military outposts.
ASEAN, which also includes Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand, has been pushing for the establishment of a “code of conduct” with China that would bind the rival claimants not to take actions that could spark conflict in the region.
Despite its appeals for unity, ASEAN members have diverging agendas, and the bloc has had difficulty taking a common stand on China which has close relationships with several members.
Palace: Bilateral talks won’t work
Malacañang welcomed the statement of US Assistant State Secretary Daniel Russel, who said that bilateral talks between China and other claimants in the South China Sea are not attainable.
Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said any negotiation must conform to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties on the South China Sea agreed upon by China and Southeast Asian countries in 2002.
“We petitioned the United Nations arbitral tribunal in pursuit of our belief that a rules-based approach will best promote peace and stability,” Coloma said.
“His (Russel) statements are aligned with the Philippines’ views,” he added.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a resource-rich area where more than $5 trillion of trade passes through every year. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan, meanwhile, have overlapping claims.
The Philippines has challenged what it described as China’s “exaggerated” and “excessive” territorial claims before an international arbitral tribunal.
Beijing has refused to join the legal proceedings and insists that it has historical rights over the potentially oil and gas-rich area. The Chinese government maintains that direct bilateral negotiation, not international arbitration, is the best way to resolve maritime disputes.
The US has vowed not to take sides on the dispute but called on claimants to settle their differences peacefully while adhering to international law.
Russel reiterated its stance in a recent forum organized by Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“I don’t know anyone in the region who believes that a negotiated settlement between China and other claimants is attainable in the current atmosphere,” Russel said.
He believes negotiations will be made difficult by “absolutist political position taken by some claimants who insist that their own claims are ‘indisputable’ and represent territory – however distant from their shores.”
The US state official did not mention any claimant but China has been claiming that it has “indisputable sovereignty” over disputed areas in South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea.
Coloma, for his part, stressed that the Philippines believes that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), not historical claims, “provide valid reference points for settling maritime entitlement issues.”
‘Speak out’
The military, meanwhile, believes other nations should speak out against China’s occupation of disputed territories.
Asked to react to a New York Times article detailing China’s reclamation in the South China Sea, Armed Forces spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla said the increasing concern of various groups affirms the points that the Philippines has been raising all along.
“All nations ought to speak out as well so that hopefully with that one voice, China will listen and not use might versus what is right as well as go by a rules-based approach that all peace loving nations conform to,” Padilla said.
Padilla noted that a collective voice is a stronger voice.
“If ASEAN speaks as one voice, I think it will be stronger and better,” he said.
Padilla believes China will remain dependent on other nations in terms of trade despite the economic growth it is enjoying.
“If China becomes a solitary economic unit, it will not prosper,” the military official said.
China has embarked on a massive reclamation in seven reefs being claimed by the Philippines – Panganiban (Mischief), Zamora (Subi), Kagitingan (Fiery Cross), Kennan (Chigua), Mabini (Johnson South), Burgos (Gaven) and Calderon (Cuarteron) Reefs.
Experts believe China is building military bases on these reefs to control the resources in the South China Sea.
G7, a group composed of industrialized democracies US, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, has raised concern over the maritime disputes and called for a rules-based order based on international law.
G7 has opposed “the use of intimidation, coercion or force, as well as unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo, such as large scale land reclamation.”
“We underline the importance of peaceful dispute settlement as well as free and unimpeded lawful use of the world’s oceans,” the bloc said in a statement issued last June.