EDITORIAL - Bigger than the UN?

Round one went to the Philippines as the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled Thursday in The Hague that it had jurisdiction over the sea dispute between the country and China.

The Philippines, with no military power to prevent Chinese construction of artificial islands in waters way beyond their territory, turned to the United Nations for arbitration to define the Philippines’ maritime entitlements under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The two countries have ratified UNCLOS. Yet China announced it would disregard any final ruling of the century-old international tribunal.

This is in marked contrast to the reaction of India to a July 2014 ruling of the same tribunal on a similar dispute, this time between the South Asian giant and its neighbor Bangladesh. The tribunal gave Bangladesh exclusive economic jurisdiction over 19,467 square kilometers of waters in the Bay of Bengal, ending a 40-year dispute.

That ruling was binding on both parties with no option for appeal. It went into effect this year after nearly five years of hearings in which the feuding parties participated.

In March 2012, Bangladesh also won the arbitration case it brought against Myanmar before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. That was a bigger victory for Bangladesh, which decided to seek international arbitration after bilateral efforts to settle the case went nowhere. Voting 21 to 1, the court awarded Bangladesh 111,000 square kilometers of EEZ waters in the Bay of Bengal – an area nearly as large as the entire country – plus a 12-mile territorial sea around St. Martin’s Island, half of which Myanmar was claiming. As in the case with India, the ruling was binding and without appeal.

Myanmar, like India, bowed to the UN decision. This is how responsible members of the international community behave. At the UN, every country regardless of military might or the size of the land area and economy, has an equal voice.

China, one of just five permanent members of the UN Security Council, should be setting the example in abiding by the conventions of the United Nations. Those who disregard rules passed by the UN should get out of it.