The Europe card on South China Sea

It was by sheer coincidence that we chanced upon a very important meeting of heads of state being held in the city of Milan on our way back to Manila from Italy. We arrived in Milan Friday night a few hours after the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) winded down the summit hosted this year by Italy.

We learned later the 10th ASEM took place last Thursday and Friday in Milan. Heads of state and government of 29 European states and 22 Asian partners attended. ASEM leaders at the summit welcomed Croatia and Kazakhstan as the 52nd and 53rd ASEM partners.

Among the world leaders who attended were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese Prime Minister Li Kequiang, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and leaders of ASEAN member states.

That explained the presence of scores of uniformed polizia and heavily armed carabinieri on foot and in patrol cars, not to mention helicopters buzzing around the Milan skies. The carabinieri is the national military police of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations while their polizia serve as the civil national police. So we felt safe roaming the city on foot.

The government of Italy headed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, as host of this ASEM summit, made sure nothing untoward happens to any of the VIPs (very important persons) while they were in his country. The ASEM is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation bringing together member states of the European Union (EU) and other countries in Europe with Asian countries, including the ten-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat.

The ASEM holds dialogue summit every two years to serve as a forum to address political, economic and cultural issues and thus strengthen the relationship between the two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. With the theme “Responsible Partnership for Sustainable Growth and Security,” this year’s ASEM turned out as a very good venue for the Philippine campaign to protect its territorial rights in the overlapping claims of islands, atolls, reefs, shoals and rocks in the disputed South China Sea.

Even without specific mention of the South China Sea, the Chairman’s Statement to cap the two-day summit of ASEM in Milan sought to highlight maritime security.

“Leaders agreed on the critical importance of refraining from the use or threat of force and of disputes being resolved in accordance with principles of international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” the Italian leader read the ASEM statement at the end of their summit.

Diplomatic sources earlier disclosed the South China Sea issue was not specifically mentioned in the draft of the ASEM Chairman’s statement. The broad strokes on the South China issue were largely influenced by European economies that reportedly pushed its inclusion in the final document — to the consternation of China.

Perhaps, this could be the unseen windfall from the official visits that President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III embarked on during a four-nation trip to Europe last month.

President Aquino earlier went to Spain, France, Belgium and Germany and met with his counterpart leaders of these respective powerful EU economies. From Europe, President Aquino flew straight to New York where he spoke about Philippine initiatives on Climate Change before the United Nations General Assembly.

Before she flew to Milan to attend the ASEM, Chancellor Merkel vowed to raise China’s bitter rivalry over the South China Sea with its neighbors, including the Philippines and Vietnam. In a statement made in a press conference in Berlin on the eve of the ASEM summit, Merkel was reported to have advocated a political solution on the longstanding maritime dispute that threatens bilateral trade and security in the fast-growing East Asian region that might potentially affect the world economy.

“It is in Germany’s interests to have freely accessible shipping channels and tension-free zones,” Merkel said in a joint press conference with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who was her state visitor in Berlin that day. “We urge, and in this we are in full agreement, a peaceful solution. We could envisage discussions or international arbitration,” the feisty German leader stressed.

The German leader made the statement only a week after meeting with Premier Li who was in Berlin where the two of them witnessed the signing of $18.1 billion worth of trade and investments and technical cooperation deals between the two countries. Later, Li went to Rome and witnessed with Renzi the signing of $10 billion worth of trade deals of China with Italy.

Beijing has frowned upon the Philippine move to bring the South China Sea territorial dispute before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). This after China pressed its “nine-dash line” claims that annexed several islands and atolls within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Beijing accused Manila of lack of bad faith to resolve the matter bilaterally and has refused to submit itself to the jurisdiction of ITLOS. China still insists that Manila should settle the dispute on bilateral basis.

President Aquino opted to skip the two-day ASEM in Italy. However, the President was capably represented by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario. Without lifting a finger, Del Rosario scored for the Philippines at the ASEM.

Del Rosario has stood the country’s ground that the peaceful resolution of this maritime dispute should be within the framework of UNCLOS. Without mention of China, the DFA Secretary deplored a certain state embarked on a series of dangerous, reckless and forceful activities in an attempt to impose unilateral change in the maritime status quo of the South China Sea.
We tried but failed to reach the DFA Secretary in Milan. But the DFA Secretary, we would learn later, was keeping a tight schedule for his next official trips after ASEM.

While foreign policy is not one of the strong suits of P-Noy, he obviously played very well his Europe card in the South China Sea issue, with one of his better alter egos — the DFA Secretary — keeping a close watch.