MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is hoping that a code of conduct in the South China Sea based on international law will be approved soon.
“It shall be an example of how states manage their differences: Through reason and through right. I, therefore, welcome the progress on textual negotiations on the COC this past year and hopefully an approved code of conduct in the very near future,” Marcos said in his remarks at the 25th ASEAN-China Summit in Cambodia.
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Marcos raised the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in his remarks, noting that it is vital that this treaty continues to be upheld as the universal framework in oceans and sea activities.
The president did not raise the 2016 arbitral ruling which voided China’s sweeping claims over virtually the entire South China Sea. Beijing continues to ignore this ruling by the Hague-based tribunal.
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The Philippines and other claimants to the South China Sea have long been pushing for a code of conduct in the disputed waters aimed at reducing the risk of conflict over the strategic waterway.
But progress on the code of conduct has been painfully slow even if it has been perennially discussed by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, however, said in his recent visit to Malaysia that China would hasten consultations on the code of conduct.
The Philippines, under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, previously led discussions on the code of conduct.
But former Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said these dialogues “went nowhere” as Manila opposed Beijing’s desire to exclude foreign powers from the code of conduct.
“Negotiations for the code of conduct, even in our watch, went nowhere. I opposed the exclusion of any outside power from the South China Sea. That would create a semi-legal sphere of influence repugnant to the comity of all nations,” Locsin said in December 2021. — Xave Gregorio