Amid South China Sea tension, PH calls for more ASEAN-US ties on maritime security

From InterAksyon (Jul 2): Amid South China Sea tension, PH calls for more ASEAN-US ties on maritime security

Amid the Philippines’ unresolved territorial dispute with China, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario has called for an expanded ASEAN-United States cooperation on maritime security.

Del Rosario issued the call in his address of the ASEAN-US Post Ministerial Conference in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam on Monday, noting that maritime security is gaining greater importance in the dialogue partnership.

His suggestion, contained in a news release from the Department of Foreign Affairs, came a few days after he accused China of militarizing the South China Sea (or West Philippine Sea to the Philippines). Del Rosario pointed to "massive presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships" at two groups of islets within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone called Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal. He described the Chinese military presence at these islets as "threats to efforts to maintain maritime peace and stability in the region."

“To prevent disputes from escalating into conflict,” del Rosario also called for the “full and effective implementation” of the ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in the meantime that a regional code of conduct is yet to be negotiated and concluded.

The pact, which was signed in 2002, enjoins all claimants from actions that would tend to escalate tension in the area. However, it will be noted that according to Philippine authorities, since April last year, Chinese fishing vessels continue to occupy the Scarborough Shoals off Zambales, keeping Filipino fishermen from the fish-rich outcrop.

At the same time, Chinese authorities have bristled at the joint naval exercises of the Philippines and the United States near the Scarborough Schoal, which is 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Luzon and 1,200 kilometers from the nearest major Chinese landmass.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, even waters close to the shores of its smaller neighbors.

Tensions between China and other claimants to the sea, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, have escalated in recent years amid a series of Chinese political and military actions to assert its claims to the waters.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/65391/amid-south-china-sea-tension-ph-calls-for-more-asean-us-ties-on-maritime-security