Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Junever Mahilum-West. (PNA photo by Joyce Ann L. Rocamora)
An official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday the principles of the Hague ruling in the contested South China Sea reflects the Philippines' position despite the ruling's exclusion in the ongoing negotiations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-China Code of Conduct (COC).
"Let's just say that the arbitral decision permeates the Philippine positions in the negotiations of the Code of Conduct and of course when you're negotiating and you know the other party doesn't like to mention this thing, you don't mention it. But the principles, we try to put in there," DFA Assistant Secretary Junever Mahilum-West said in a briefing at the DFA Office.
Mahilum-West said the Philippines is one with the parties in trying to make diplomacy work to meet the three-year targeted conclusion of the COC negotiations.
"In negotiations and in diplomacy we want to try approaches that will work. So if you feel that invoking the decision and then citing the tribunal might not be productive then you don't do it and then you just find some other way," she said.
Mahilum-West's remarks came after former DFA chief Albert del Rosario proposed that the Philippine victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration be included in the crafted COC.
Asean and China are working to finish the negotiations by 2021.
Mahilum-West said the two parties have capped the first reading of the so-called single negotiating draft on the COC negotiations.
For the second phase of negotiations, the diplomat said "more intensive discussions", particularly on big issues on the ground, are expected.
"Now they are going on to the next step and we had a meeting in Vietnam recently so we would expect that the negotiations would discuss more substantive issues at the second meeting and also probably discuss big-picture issues like conditions on the ground and conditions in the South China Sea," she said.
"The time frame is that we would like to finish it by 2021, the Philippines is the coordinator of the Asean-China dialogue relations and co-chairing with China on the negotiation of the COC," she added.
In an earlier press conference in Malacañang, Mahilum-West said it is “unavoidable” that the COC will be brought up in the discussions during the 35th Asean Summit and Related Summits in Bangkok, Thailand.
She said President Rodrigo R. Duterte will attend the summit which will run from November 2 to 4.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084509
"Let's just say that the arbitral decision permeates the Philippine positions in the negotiations of the Code of Conduct and of course when you're negotiating and you know the other party doesn't like to mention this thing, you don't mention it. But the principles, we try to put in there," DFA Assistant Secretary Junever Mahilum-West said in a briefing at the DFA Office.
Mahilum-West said the Philippines is one with the parties in trying to make diplomacy work to meet the three-year targeted conclusion of the COC negotiations.
"In negotiations and in diplomacy we want to try approaches that will work. So if you feel that invoking the decision and then citing the tribunal might not be productive then you don't do it and then you just find some other way," she said.
Mahilum-West's remarks came after former DFA chief Albert del Rosario proposed that the Philippine victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration be included in the crafted COC.
Asean and China are working to finish the negotiations by 2021.
Mahilum-West said the two parties have capped the first reading of the so-called single negotiating draft on the COC negotiations.
For the second phase of negotiations, the diplomat said "more intensive discussions", particularly on big issues on the ground, are expected.
"Now they are going on to the next step and we had a meeting in Vietnam recently so we would expect that the negotiations would discuss more substantive issues at the second meeting and also probably discuss big-picture issues like conditions on the ground and conditions in the South China Sea," she said.
"The time frame is that we would like to finish it by 2021, the Philippines is the coordinator of the Asean-China dialogue relations and co-chairing with China on the negotiation of the COC," she added.
In an earlier press conference in Malacañang, Mahilum-West said it is “unavoidable” that the COC will be brought up in the discussions during the 35th Asean Summit and Related Summits in Bangkok, Thailand.
She said President Rodrigo R. Duterte will attend the summit which will run from November 2 to 4.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084509
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