The United States and the European Union warned China on Wednesday to respect an international court ruling expected later this year on its dispute with the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea – or face the costs.
China claims virtually all the South China Sea and rejects the authority of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague hearing the dispute, even though Beijing has ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea on which the case is based.
Amy Searight, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said the United States, the European Union, and allies like Australia, Japan and South Korea must be ready to make clear that the court’s ruling must be binding and that there would be costs to China for not respecting it if it lost the case.
“We need to be ready to be very loud and vocal, in harmony together, standing behind the Philippines and the rest of the ASEAN claimants to say that this is international law, this is incredibly important, it is binding on all parties,” she told a seminar at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Searight said the message to China, if it did not respect a negative ruling, should be, “we will hold you accountable.”\
“Certainly, reputational cost is at stake, but we can think of other creative ways to perhaps impose costs as well,” she said without elaborating.
The Hague tribunal has no powers of enforcement and its rulings have been ignored before. Manila has said the court may hand down a ruling before May.
Klaus Botzet, head of the political section of the EU Delegation in Washington, said it is difficult to oppose world opinion.
“A joint Western, a joint world opinion, matters also for Beijing,” he said.
“If we unanimously support that international law as formulated by the international tribunal in the Hague ... needs to be upheld, that’s a very strong message and will be very difficult to ignore,” he said.
In unusually forthright language, Botzet said China’s policy of military buildup was not in its interest.
“It’s investing much more in its military relative to its economic growth; it’s forcing its neighbors into alliances against itself; positions its neighbors otherwise wouldn’t take and the return on investment on this policy is negative,” he said.
The United States had exceptional military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific, Botzet said, adding that the European Union “strongly supports the American guarantee of international law in Asia.”
INCREASING TENSION
The US Defense Department on Wednesday said commercial imagery indicated that China had deployed a surface-to-air missile system on Woody Island in the Paracels, and that the action was increasing tension in the South China Sea area.
The Pentagon urged all countries that have staked claims to disputed areas in the region to address their territorial and maritime claims in accordance with international law, and to commit to peacefully manage or resolve their disputes.
“We call on South China Sea claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and new militarization of disputed features,” said Navy Commander Bill Urban, a spokesman for the Pentagon.
Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command chief Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez expressed concern that China may use the missiles to shoot down aircraft that will not respond to its warning against flying in a supposed Chinese territory.
“It has an impact. There is no reason to deploy them if you are not going use them. That’s one thing. It really impacts on the security of the region. If they have that there, they have the intention to use it,” said Lopez.
“What if they use them against civilian aircraft that ignores their challenge?” he asked.
At the opening of the Delhi Dialogue VIII on Wednesday, Indian Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa said there is no plan to jointly conduct patrols with the US in the South China Sea.
Wadhil told the delegation of the Asean-India Media Programme in Delhi that all parties should abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).
He added that a Code of Conduct must be developed by stakeholders, and that countries involved in the row should avoid using force and maintain the freedom of navigation in the area.
http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/china-told-respect-arbitral-court-or-else
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