Philippine President Benigno Aquino will urge China to start
negotiations on a set of rules to avoid conflict in the South China Sea during
a regional summit next week, a government official said.
The 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in July agreed on a code of conduct for operating in
the waters. China, undergoing a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, said at
the time it will start talks with Asean “when conditions are ripe,” according
to the official Xinhua News Agency.
“We are ready to negotiate with
China,” Raul Hernandez, spokesman for the Philippine foreign affairs
department, told reporters in Manila today, referring to Asean. “We hope China
would respond positively, and immediately tackle this issue so we can have
something binding.”
China has resisted calls by Asean
members and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to quickly reach a deal on
a code of conduct, preferring instead to push for joint development of
resources to ease tensions. Vietnam and the Philippines reject China’s map of
the sea as a basis for sharing oil, gas and fish in the waters.
Asean leaders will meet with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other regional leaders during meetings in Phnom
Penh next week. Cambodia holds Asean’s rotating chairmanship.
Non-Binding Guidelines
Last year, Asean and China agreed
on guidelines to implement a non-binding agreement signed in 2002 that called
on signatories to avoid occupying disputed islands, inform others of military
exercises and resolve territorial disputes peacefully. The eight guidelines
approved last year say activities in the sea should be step-by-step, on a
voluntary basis and based on consensus.
While Asean reached agreement on
elements of a code of conduct in the South China Sea, the bloc failed to reach
consensus on handling disputes in the waters in a communique. They eventually
agreed on six principles that avoided mentioning a standoff earlier this year
between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal, which both
countries claim.
“With these six principles on the
South China Sea issue, we can move forward and these summits will be on a
totally different dynamic,” Hernandez said. “We are hoping and expecting that
there will be smooth and very productive results on these meetings.”
Daniel Ten Kate and Joel Guinto
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